TP Link Router wants to share client info with third parties
from megaman@discuss.tchncs.de to privacy@lemmy.ml on 28 Sep 17:33
https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/45839864

My router (TP Link) said it had a firmware update. I’m a responsible adult, so I update my firmware. When I log back in, I get this popup that they’d like to share my clients info.

cool…

A screenshot with text on top, a generic red background image in the middle, and buttons on bottom saying "Maybe Later" and "Authorize". The text on top says "We are now better at identifying clients! To accurately identify your connected clients, we will share your clients' information to a third-party service if you authorize it. We won't save your private information. For more details, refer to the Privacy Policy [in red, presumambly a hyperlink]".

#privacy

threaded - newest

aberrate_junior_beatnik@midwest.social on 28 Sep 17:49 next collapse

Maybe Later

I hate it here

Raptor_007@lemmy.world on 28 Sep 17:52 next collapse

shares it anyway

trevor@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 28 Sep 20:40 collapse

Rapist’s mentality.

bus_factor@lemmy.world on 28 Sep 17:52 next collapse

One of two things happened:

  • They implemented it just now, and it’s nice of them to ask Or:
  • They’ve been doing it for years, and now legal told them they need to ask
shittydwarf@piefed.social on 28 Sep 17:55 collapse

It’s always #2

TheTechnician27@lemmy.world on 28 Sep 17:53 next collapse

Any chance of something like OpenWrt?

artifex@piefed.social on 28 Sep 17:55 next collapse

Weird, I must be seeing a different screenshot, because all I read here is “TP Link would like you to overwrite its firmware with OpenWRT.”

buddascrayon@lemmy.world on 30 Sep 13:50 collapse

Hold up. Since when can you put OpenWRT on non linksys routers??? I stopped following the project years ago when i stopped using linksys routers. Have they expanded their repertoire?

artifex@piefed.social on 30 Sep 16:25 collapse

I’ve been using it for 10+ years on a combination of Netgear, TP-Link and Raspberry Pi hardware, so at least that long?

buddascrayon@lemmy.world on 30 Sep 18:15 collapse

The last time I engaged with OpenWRT was around 2010 so that tracks.

chiliedogg@lemmy.world on 28 Sep 17:56 next collapse

We won’t save your private information. But the third party services - some of which are owned by the same parent company as us - absolutely will.

lightnsfw@reddthat.com on 29 Sep 03:28 collapse

We won’t save it, but we will pass it along to whoever gives us money.

cardfire@sh.itjust.works on 28 Sep 17:59 next collapse

Cooool. Anyone know how to deaden this behavior?

Pogogunner@sopuli.xyz on 28 Sep 18:07 collapse

Don’t use their software, use something like openwrt

Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca on 28 Sep 18:06 next collapse

openwrt.org

I’ve never personally used that one, but it gets recommended a lot.

I’ve been using DD-WRT for 15+ years, but that’s for no particular reason other than It’s what I found first and haven’t had any reason to switch.

pineapplelover@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 28 Sep 18:40 next collapse

I’m using openwrt and it’s great

spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works on 28 Sep 20:30 next collapse

I used DD-WRT for 9 years and had no reason to switch until I was forced to. At some point after a firmware upgrade my routers began to occasionally lose their configurations after power failures. Months of troubleshooting, logging errors and recreating configs made no difference. I had been concerned for some time that the project seemed to rely on one guy, and although what he’s doing is amazing, it is not possible for him to thoroughly test each firmware release. When one of my routers lost its config when I was 200 miles away and I lost alarm monitoring I was forced to make a change.

Open-WRT has been a really pleasant surprise. It’s completely stable on the same routers and the feature set is unbelievably broad. The learning curve was a bitch though.

Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 28 Sep 20:57 collapse

My story is very similar. I used DD-WRT for years until something broke. Then I switched to OpenWRT and never looked back. That was maybe ten years ago.

interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml on 28 Sep 23:00 collapse

I was on DD-WRT back when WRT54G but the DD-WRT devs don’t really get it,
They make the bad compromises, and most of their initial contributors appears to have moved on to OpenWRT.

At this point DD-WRT isn’t just another alternative, it’s very stale while OpenWRT is still evolving rapidly and has the larger contributor community. And they put as much emphasis on performance, bloat reduction and efficiency as they do new features.

I have a 8MB nvram TP link archer C7 and it’s actually faster in the latest version, that’s basically unheard of in all of software !

MrSulu@lemmy.ml on 30 Sep 12:25 collapse

This is incredibly helpful to know - cheers mate

Pika@sh.itjust.works on 28 Sep 18:12 next collapse

Well, thats a shame. I have always preferred TP-Link due to their pricing and freedom of software/smart home integrations. This definitely puts a damper on that.

Reverendender@sh.itjust.works on 28 Sep 18:27 next collapse

I stopped using TP Link stuff after read a few articles on their significant security issues having something to do with their Chinese ownership, and back doors or something. It’s too bad, as far as usability and reliability, they were way better than the Netgear and Asus is have now.

Lyra_Lycan@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 28 Sep 18:31 next collapse

Well, TP Link have never been trustworthy. Cheap and trustworthy rarely exist together.

I have the best smart plugs I could acquire - Kasa brand. They’re great adapters, but the moment their API call doesn’t get a response from their servers, they restart themselves every ten minutes. We all have to make some sacrifices in the journey to net security and independence, and keeping their API unblocked is one of mine.

If anyone wants smart plugs for monitoring purposes the Kasa brand is operable without the TP-Link app. Tapo is far worse. Never go full Tapo.

Bldck@beehaw.org on 28 Sep 19:41 next collapse

Kasa is owned by TP Link

ekky@sopuli.xyz on 28 Sep 20:18 next collapse

Yup, bought a bunch of TP-Link mesh towers. Turns out that they take down the whole WiFi when the main node looses internet connection. That’s just not acceptable, I might have an unstable internet connection but still want access to my local devices, such as my streaming server or router.

On that node, does anyone know of a brand of mesh towers that can survive unstable/no internet connections and don’t use custom firmware? DD-WRT works just fine, but I’m not gonna flash custom firmware onto friends’ devices.

ZinQ@lemmy.ml on 30 Sep 17:42 collapse

Wouldn’t you be helping them?

Broken@lemmy.ml on 29 Sep 03:03 collapse

I have kasa switches and everything is blocked on my firewall so they can’t phone home.

Overall they function fine. But I have 1 pesky switch that is constantly in a disconnected state (red light) no matter what I do. Every time I reconnect it it disconnects not too long later. It functions fine though, possibly because its a 3 way and the paired switch is fine.

I have another set of 3 way switches that have disconnected a few times but reconnecting them works just fine for a long while (years).

So my questions are, that pesky red light switch sounds kind of like your situation. When you say they reset themselves, do the lights go red?

Secondly, yours reset every 10 minutes? Most of mine seem fine. I’m not sure what’s different between our setups.

Lyra_Lycan@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 30 Sep 19:10 collapse

I haven’t seen the lights go red, only off, then orange, then green if they were already on.

Of my KP105 and KP115 plugs, only one has misbehaved, only once when their server was unreachable. The main culprit is the Kasa 303 I think it’s called? The 3-outlet adapter.

They are great devices! But I’m waiting for a Zigbee or Matter alternative with energy monitoring so these can be swapped out

Broken@lemmy.ml on 01 Oct 17:20 collapse

Gotcha. So with a few exceptions they overall seem perform well across the board.

Once upon a time I dreamed of switching them all out for something better, and was actually looking forward to Tapo with matter support.

But for my uses I’m basically pulling the plug. My switches are smart enough. I can do schedules, profiles, and control with the app.

I don’t need more than that and there’s not really a privacy focused option as far as I know. Blocking internet is my solution to keep things contained.

laurelraven@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 28 Sep 18:33 next collapse

I love how they say they won’t save your private info, but nothing about whether the third party will

Petter1@discuss.tchncs.de on 28 Sep 18:36 next collapse

…a third-party services…

Now, what is it, one or many!?

datavoid@lemmy.ml on 28 Sep 19:28 next collapse

Yes

Thedogdrinkscoffee@lemmy.ca on 28 Sep 20:27 collapse

Yes!

[deleted] on 28 Sep 18:52 next collapse

.

Showroom7561@lemmy.ca on 28 Sep 19:37 collapse

tp link routers tend to run openwrt pretty well.

Of course, I have the TP-Link router that isn’t well-supported 😖

I kind of miss my old Linksys routers, which officially supported third-party firmware.

Damage@feddit.it on 28 Sep 22:18 collapse

I am a fan of gl.inet stuff, they come with [a customized version of] OpenWRT preinstalled. I’m a industrial tech and I’ve used a couple of their products as hotspots when working on machines for years, I’ve even connected multiple together to work on 2-3 production lines on different subnets at the same time.

Showroom7561@lemmy.ca on 29 Sep 01:55 collapse

Very cool. Thanks for the recommendation.

14th_cylon@lemmy.zip on 28 Sep 18:59 next collapse

i have always wondered how this works from the legal point. what if you disagree, should you sue to get your money back? you are buying product with some expectations, they can’t just change that after you paid, can they?

it is similar with cars, what if you buy new car and the car’s infotainment asks you to accept some outrageous terms and conditions, you do bother to actually read them and then decline. can you get your money back? has anyone ever tried?

thefluffiest@feddit.nl on 28 Sep 19:28 next collapse

Asus and Merlin forever

surph_ninja@lemmy.world on 28 Sep 20:37 next collapse

Time to learn how to set up OPNsense.

irmadlad@lemmy.world on 29 Sep 04:04 collapse

Or in my case, pFsense, but yeah…that’s the way.

Zerush@lemmy.ml on 28 Sep 21:18 next collapse

My router (WiFi v.6) has an inbuild Firewall

warmaster@lemmy.world on 29 Sep 02:19 next collapse

Slap OpenWRT on that little trojan horse.

AndyMFK@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 29 Sep 02:37 next collapse

What router do you have? I have the TP-Link Omada ER7212 and am not seeing this on the latest firmware

megaman@discuss.tchncs.de on 29 Sep 14:57 next collapse

Archer AX11000

a4ng3l@lemmy.world on 29 Sep 20:16 collapse

I doubt something like this will spillover to the professional line of products. We should be clear for a while with Omada.

artyom@piefed.social on 29 Sep 03:16 collapse

Maybe later

Fuck off to hell with this shit

proton_lynx@lemmy.world on 01 Oct 05:06 collapse

It’s the rapist mentality, they won’t accept “no” as an answer.