There’s one battle my husband and I have fought ever since we started cohabiting: whether to allow “smart” appliances in our home. He, an enthusiastic gadget fan, would happily connect all of our household goods to the internet so he could control them from his phone. I, a jaded tech journalist, am far too paranoid to surround myself with a bunch of data-guzzling surveillance machines.

So I felt somewhat vindicated when I saw the latest story about a seemingly innocuous utensil apparently getting a bit too data-hungry. The consumer group Which? found that three air fryers it tested had connected phone apps that requested permission to record audio – not something you’d imagine to be a critical function for an object whose sole purpose is to cook food. The devices also wanted to know users’ exact locations.

If you ask me, there’s no need for an air fryer – or a fridge, washing machine or toaster – to be connected to the internet at all, though I can appreciate that there is some merit to the concept. A main benefit of smart appliances is that they allow for remote operation, so you can set off a load of laundry to finish just when you get home from work, or check which groceries you’re running low on while at the supermarket. But a lot of these devices and their connected apps gather high levels of personal information, often with little transparency and despite regulations that are supposed to limit the data they process.

All smart appliances need to collect some data in order to fulfil their promised functions. Audio access, for example, is needed for........

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