Privacy considerations

[ghost]

Hi, this looks like a great project. I have some questions about the privacy aspects of this integration.

I do not like to have data collected by the manufacturer. Hence, I have never installed any app and I do not have any account associated with the robot.

• Will I be able to connect the robot to Home Assistant and control the robot by only using this integration and in particular without any app? If I understand the README correctly, the map feature will not work in this case, but it would still help me to schedule cleanings.
• Using this integration without cloud login, will any data be sent to a third party by the robot or the integration?

[Tasshack]

You need to connect device to the cloud at least once for controlling the device from the integration without internet connection. You can find more details there https://github.com/Tasshack/dreame-vacuum/discussions/323

[ghost]

Thank you for the detailed write-up, that answers a lot of questions. Too bad the manufacturer prevents you from using the robot completely offline.

[Tasshack]

Thank you for the detailed write-up, that answers a lot of questions. Too bad the manufacturer prevents you from using the robot completely offline.

Data that has been sent to the cloud is for diagnostic and further development of the embedded sofware so they don't care your personal information like Youtube or Google but more interested in how the device is actually performing in your house (Tesla does the exact same thing). The amount of data has been sent to the cloud and how it was stored requires huge amount of processing power and probably it will cost more than designing and producing the device just to decode and parse the data generated in a single day. The real issue happens when data has been stolen or sold but this can happen on any other cloud device or service you use every day. I can understand how people are sensitive about in this matter especially device with a camera but please don't forget, your smartphone also has a camera and microphone on it and I can assure you your Android or IOS device collects more info about you than your robot vacuum.