Your smart home is watching you: what 210 connected devices are really doing
In short: From insulin pumps to smart TVs, our homes are filled with internet-connected technology. But convenience often comes at a hidden cost. Anna Maria Mandalari, who tested over 210 devices in a specialized lab, reveals how these gadgets secretly monitor your behavior, record private conversations, and capture frequent screen snapshots.
The modern home has become an ecosystem of interconnected hardware, ranging from fitness trackers and doorbells to critical medical equipment like insulin pumps. While these devices offer undeniable convenience, they also function as silent observers. Anna Maria Mandalari, a lecturer at UCL and director of the SafeNetIoT Laboratory, has spent years investigating the privacy and security implications of this pervasive connectivity. Her research, conducted within one of the world's largest IoT research facilities, exposes a reality far more intrusive than most consumers realize.
The technical findings are unsettling. Mandalari’s investigations have uncovered devices that record audio without user awareness and smart televisions that capture screen snapshots as frequently as every 500 milliseconds. These actions occur behind the scenes, often without clear user consent or transparency. The challenge lies in the sheer complexity of these systems, where the data flow between a device and its manufacturer is rarely visible to the average person. Detecting these threats requires sophisticated laboratory environments capable of monitoring network traffic at a granular level.
Beyond the immediate privacy concerns, Mandalari’s work highlights the broader systemic issues facing the Internet of Things. As a key figure in global cybersecurity standardization—serving as Secretary of ETSI TC CYBER EUSR and Chair of the IoT Working Group at RIPE—she emphasizes that the problem is not just individual device behavior, but a lack of robust industry standards. Addressing these risks requires a coordinated effort between policymakers, industry leaders, and individual users. The goal is to move toward a more transparent connected world where security is built into the architecture of our devices rather than treated as an afterthought.
Mandalari’s research, presented at the Royal Institution on May 6, 2026, serves as a call to action for better oversight. By bridging the gap between academic research and real-world application, she aims to influence how future technologies are developed. As we continue to integrate more connected devices into our daily lives, understanding the mechanisms of this digital surveillance is essential for maintaining personal privacy in an increasingly transparent and data-driven society.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: She tested 210 smart devices. Here's what they're hiding | IoT with Anna Maria Mandalari
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