The spies in your home: How WiFi companies monitor your private life
I get why ISP provided routers and some brands of mesh router would collect and sell data but what is it about “mesh” that is particularly bad here? I have a cheap TP Link router that is apparently mesh compatible but it seems like a traditional router in all the other way. Should I be concerned?
Obviously, I can’t tell you about the privacy implications of every internet routing device on the planet.
I was just trying to provide a more complete and longer TL;DR than the one I was responding to.
Sounds like you know what you are doing as well as anyone could, you don’t need my TLDR
You state that mesh is much worse for privacy than traditional access points but refuse to elaborate
I’ll elaborate for him/her: mesh devices sold by untrusted companies with a profit model will almost surely be collecting your data.
The problem is not “mesh”, it is the companies using a new, cool, buzzword to sell their spyware that is the problem.
They are basically enhanced repeaters that don’t require a seperate network access point.
If you get a device that is primarily marketed as basic hardware, like the Asus router, you are more likely to avoid the collection. Bonus points if you can flash FOSS software to it, also like Asus, so yiu know it is clean. Regardless, use a VPN for external communications.
My home is small enough that mesh is unnecessary, but I’d buy another Asus device for mesh if it were necessary.
