Netgear made a change to its policy and now is actively collecting user-end data. This at the very least is happening with their Nighthawk R7000 router series. The company is collecting Analytics, IP adresses, MAC- and serial numbers.
Netgear states it has been collecting data to "isolate and debug general technical issues", we fail to see why that level of info needs to be collected and saved. The router also has been collecting things like connected devices and usage statstics over the WIFI network, and send that info to Netgear, reports tweakers.net
It's a bit unclear if Netgear has applied this policy just to the R7000 series of routers, or that they started collecting data with their other routers as well. Netgear opened up a webpage that explains how you can disable data-collection on your router.
To disable the router analytics data collection feature:
- Launch a web browser from a computer or mobile device that is connected to the network.
- Enter http://www.routerlogin.net.
A login window opens. - Enter the router user name and password.
The user name is admin. The default password is password. The user name and password are case-sensitive.
The BASIC Home page displays. - Select ADVANCED > Administration > Router Update.
The Router Update page displays. - Scroll down to the Router Analytics Data Collection section.
- To enable router analytics data collections, select the Enable radio button.
- To disable router analytics data collections, select the Disable radio button.
- To view the type of data that might be collected, click the router analytics data link.
- Click the Apply button.
Your settings are saved.
Netgear has started collecting data with Nighthawk R7000 routers
