Google recently disabled remote control functionality for early Nest Learning Thermostats, but continues to gather data from these downgraded devices. Security researcher Cody Kociemba uncovered that first- and second-generation Nest Thermostats are still transmitting details like manual temperature adjustments, occupancy status, sunlight exposure, and more to Google.
Kociemba, participating in a bounty program by FULU, developed the No Longer Evil project to restore smart features to unsupported Nest devices. However, upon replicating Google’s API, he noticed extensive logs being sent from user devices, leading him to disable this data transmission.
While Google ceased remote control and status monitoring for these outdated devices, it retains the ability for issue diagnostics through log reporting. Notably, the data collected appears redundant and no longer useful.
Source: The Verge