It's so good to have someone talking about this. Every big 3d printing channel seems to be drumming for bambu without much criticism.

Bamboo is subsidizing the hardware costs by selling data.

Thanks for this. I am a product designer/manufacturer and use additive manufacturing for prototyping. I already have knockoffs from China affecting my profits. I ended up buying a Qidi vs Bambu labs due to these security issues. I sent Bambu labs an email telling them that i didn't purchase their product because of this. 👍🏼

Even though I don't agree with you on everything, I really appretiate you provide arguments and reasons behind your claims. It's hard to find people like you these days. Every person should have a friend like you, it would make the world a better place. Hats off to you, sir.

This isn't just an issue with 3D printers. Car manufactures are collecting data from their network connected vehicles, selling that data and serving you with ads. This is an industry wide problem with anything connected to the internet where you own nothing and YOU are the PRODUCT. Its time to vote with your wallets.

Was about to go Bambu was worried about data etc. switching to Prusa will remove the wifi. thanks for the excellent video.

I was lucky enough to get a Raspberry Pi 4 before they became rare, so I've been running OctoPrint on it - basically a web server on the Pi itself, rather than "in the cloud." Also very recently got a device for running Home Assistant - which also runs locally, on the LAN. What surprises me about Home Assistant is how much more capable it is. With the right plugins for OctoPrint, I can have the printer send a message to Home Assistant - which in turn sends a notification to my phone and smart watch. So I know when the runout sensor trips. I also have it set up to show in a text area on my watch face which layer my printer is on. I can also have it turn off the printer and lights when the hotend and bed are below a certain temperature. Some of the things I'm doing are beyond the capabilities I had with cloud-based automation systems. So my long term goal is to sunset my cloud-based IOT systems and eventually get everything running on my LAN. Which should also be good for security - because yeah, having stuff visible from outside the LAN isn't great, and sadly IOT security isn't improving.

I 100% agree! You can’t be too careful in this day in age. We’ve all been taken advantage of before by unscrupulous companies *caugh Facebook *caugh which is why I don’t utilize bamboo labs printers and in fact I like the fact that my ender 3 and elegoo Neptunes are offline machines, it gives me piece of mind and I rather enjoy the exercise required to manually insert the SD card and if I really wanted to go online I’d do it with octoprint but I don’t need to

I think people mostly don’t care because what most people, including me, print is ways less sensitive information on me than what KZfaq and Facebook provide. I personally love KZfaq and am happy to give that data up even though those two services know almost everything about me. But as someone who likes cyber security and like to build I’m not getting a Bambu anytime soon.

For this very reason I am choosing not to purchase a Bambu Labs printer. It's the same reason I don't have an Alexa in the house. The printer MUST be able to operate independent of a cloud system or WIFI. I do agree that we can all do more to protect our data. For those that don't think its a big deal that Bambu collects information, keep in mind that they can sell your G-code information to companies and all of a sudden you find that your proprietary business item shows up on a discount site.

People are willing to give up something that doesn't have value to them for the sake of a really good printer at a stupidly low price. Same thing is happening in the car market as well. The markets being flooded with cheap chinese products. At my work, we've been banned from buying bambu labs printers for prototyping because of their past history... I use a password manager for all of my passwords and I don't use the email address that's associated with my password manager for any other service. I also put all of my iot devices in its own network and use octoprint to send files to the printer for printing.. I don't really trust any company to keep my data safe.

Thanks you for sharing these messages about data privacy! This is something I want to change, in terms of software and hardware licenses. I am looking forward to build a new kind of open hardware 3D printer, and solve these problems as part of the licenses. Basically by integrating parts of the GDPR roots in a viral license, such that any company which were to distribute/host software under this license would be forced to comply to these additional terms. Unfortunately, companies like C______y with their long repeated lack of consideration for licenses, reduce my confidence in being able to pull it off.

I was discussing with someone today the about release of Babu Lab A1 and that it is bad that the cloud connection is the default instead of the lan-only mode. He kept bringing up arguments like "using the cloud is a better user experience" and "people don't care". I don't understand how anyone can be so ignorant. I don't have a printer yet, but when I do it will either be a Prusa or a kit from RatRig for example.

I too have had concerns over my data, I have come up with the idea of creating a VM for my 3D printing software to run on along with a virtual network and private static IP, I am hoping this will solve the issue as there wont be any data for them to collect. I believe we need legislation to protect our personal data and a blanket ban on encryption of our personal data and the legal choice to deny any access to it!

I'm thinking about configuring a Pi Zero for my Bambu X1 Carbon that would act as a Wifi Access Point that only allows access to one PC on my network. Not bullet-proof, but pretty well hardened. Still have to lock-down Bambu Studio.

Almost every company is collecting data about you at every touchpoint in life. Every website, every service, every interaction you have is collecting data about you & your usage habits. Just ask your ISP or Google. The amount of data they have about you is incredible!

Not an expert but I once heard from one the US federal agencies are allowed to (and does in bulk) buy information from private entities it would not be allowed to collect without a warrant. Kinda puts a dent in the spirt of the 4th if true.

I very much respect your efforts in this regard. I was on the fence about getting a Bambu for work, but your sleuthing has deterred me from such notions. When printing in a work environment (esp with respect to ITAR) you have to take the extra step to keep designs private. When bad stuff is stolen, we get the capacitor plague circa 2000's.

Any executable file (slicer) that is downloaded to your computer is only a few cycles away from taking any information they want. Your network security and app recommendations are correct. Link up with a legitimate 3D printer company and get me a real bounty, i'll get your information.

I can’t in good conscience buy a Bambu Labs. I wish I could since it is objectively the best consumer printer right now. Is the Prusia still an option for those with security concerns?

Hey grant (hope it is your name the one written on 3dm site), i tought about this for a while: if it was possible to create a guest network that doesnt let the devices connected to it sending any packet to another network and only recieve, would the problem of not knowing what datas you are sending to bambulab or other companies solved?

Apparently bambu lab printers force you to use qr code and smart phone and internet and WiFi. I don't want any of that. I want a printer without internet and without wireless connection, and that I can connect with a wired USB cable to my computer. Does such a printer exist?

When you print with Bambu, You're printing with Xi.

Definitely not an expert here either...I've dipped my toes into the world of superior personal network security, but not much more than that. I've owned my own routers since I first moved into my own place in college and for most of that time have taken it one level higher by flashing open-source firmware to avoid any issues that could come from the stock firmware (DD-WRT gang, represent). Granted, I probably use about 17% of the power-user features of the firmware, but it does give me a little more comfort in terms of minimizing ways for personal information to leak out where it doesn't belong. It may be daunting, the concept of flashing new firmware onto your expensive new router, but it's not really that bad and once you get the initial setup done it doesn't really need much attention even when switching modems and ISPs. I also still kind of question the love affair people have with sending gcode to their printers over the network. "But it's so easy to start a print!" So what? You still have to pull the last print off the bed, and if you're going to be walking up to your printer anyway you might as well do it with an SD card or USB flash drive in hand. I'm not bagging on the concept of convenience features, I'm just saying that there's a universe of difference between having a 3D printed tool holder or light bar and saving yourself from having to walk a few feet. You probably need the steps anyway (I sure do). There is something to be said for a natural limit on Internet security - the only way to be completely, undeniably safe from Internet-based criminals (individual, corporate, or governmental in nature) is to not use the Internet, only ever use cash, and live hundreds of miles from the nearest human being that could take a picture of you. And to go back in time and convince your parents to do all of these things from the day you're born. Using social media, having an email account with one of the many free online email providers, having a mobile phone...all of these things introduce some level of risk. Some people will certainly say "you have a Facebook account, so why even worry about what Bambu Lab or Creality are stealing from you" and might even be right on a fundamental level...but you don't have to jump face-first into every potential security breach just because you accept a few basic ones in your daily life. Use a good router, don't post pictures of your kids (or anyone else's) on social media, don't advertise your expensive hobbies on your car, don't click on the Win Free iPad NOW ad banners, don't buy anything from Temu or Wish, and don't let Bambu Lab see your encrypted data. These things aren't hard and they do help keep you and your info safe.

Its funny that the ISP still charges for the equipment even though they are selling you data. Looking at you Comcast

Off topic: I'm seeing reviews of cheaper printers (bed slingers) equipped with kipper from the factory a lot lately. Any recommendations/opinions on a good beginner printer in 2023? Great print quality, high reliability, easy to repair, and easy to mod (I'd like to have swappable hot ends). (sorry if you've answered this before)

You are smart guy (much smarter than me) and that part where you spoke about "guest network" - I have read about it somewhat and some people say one thing, others totally different stuff, so I ask you - let say I have several devices connected to one WLAN - do those devices are able to communicate to each other (even "steal" data from each other)... and follow up question - if let say "little goblin" is connected to "guest WLAN" and my other devices to "main WLAN" then that "goblin" can't sniff my main devices data... Is my main idea/path correct?

I just clicked on this video so I could voice my opinion -- I don't want my data going to China (or any other offshore) country. I don't want a print agent in the cloud controlling my machine. I will not buy a 3D printer with those limitations. Babmu's EULA is and offensive. I have no problem with folks hosting an open share forum (like Thingiverse) and inviting folks to contribute voluntarily but "Data-R*pe" is offensive and wrong.

Be more concerned about local network info like router model, attached devices and maybe Mac addresses if you don't randomise.

The latest Bambu X1 firmware enabled camera over LAN only mode, which goes some way towards allowing users to avoid their cloud without losing functionality (though the app still requires the printer to be in online mode if you want to use it). You implied that LAN mode on its own isn't enough though, saying that the printer should be in its own VLAN. Do you think the printer still communicates with their cloud even in LAN only mode?

Finally someone raises his voice against these data thiefs

2:20 Nice try but I have "Hey Google" disabled on my devices. 😁

Data security cost Bambu a sale to me.

This is why I choose not to support companies like bamboo and creality.

LOL, My google nest ignored you!! :D

This message is now encrypted or redacted if your in Canada ChEeRs!

Grant, what did you mean by “it’s capitalism”? Hopefully that was not a dig against Capitalism!! I agree with your points regarding data privacy and the fact that we have loose regulation in the US to protect that data. Thus leads into your point that the consumer should care more about their data security but I would not agree that we blame any of this on capitalism. Capitalism is one of the reasons that you have a successful business and living the American dream right?

1:14 Just to let you know, the UK still has GDPR regulations in place, this never changed.

That is one reason I use Apple products, not Android, Apple sells you phones/ipads, Google sells YOUR info to its customers - Data brokers/Marketers.

ill support ya smash that like ppl and listen to grant hes right we are spoiled and accept to much that breach our privacy and way of living because its mostly looks like its gonna make your life better ...... but its not so listen and stop this

[this comment has been intercepted for Data security purposes]

Hello again

According to your data security protection requirements, you should not use any smartphone/tablet apps or connected applications for standard operating systems, you should not use Alexa, Siri, Google home devices for the same reason, you should not use chinese smartphones, you should not use web browsers, or software such as online 3D design software, scanning applications, QRCode software, LLMs like ChatGPT, Generative AI tools such as Midjourney, DALL-E. In fact, you shouldn’t use KZfaq or any of those social media apps. In addition, most vendors normally do not provide any open source solutions, so that you can’t see what their products are really doing under the hood. BTW: this also includes US companies. 3D printer companies and users have been in a kind of isolated island so far. This is changing rapidly. I don’t say that I don’t care or that I wouldn’t prefer much stronger privacy. However, I got the feeling that most people just don’t mind giving away their data. Whenever we register with a Web site or participate in a contest, our data will escape from our control. It has become incredibly difficult to stay protected these days except if you do not connect to anything outside of your home which will make your feel very lonely.

A lot of huffing and buffing especially for his favorite click bait nemesis. Why do I say it doesn’t matter? Ever use Fusion 360?