From the article:
The consumer champion Which? found companies appear to be gathering far more data than is needed for products to function. This includes smart TVs that ask for users’ viewing habits and a smart washing machine that requires people’s date of birth. Rocio Concha, director of policy and advocacy at Which?, said: “Consumers have already paid for smart products, in some cases thousands of pounds, so it is excessive that they have to continue to ‘pay’ with their personal information.”
Petition to rename devices that require online functionality to be considered smart devices as “dumb devices”, ala the dumb terminals of yesteryear.
Non-digital, smart (electronics on the device processes all the data and responds to them in some automated fashion), and dumb (sends data and recives commands from external device or service). I personally love it, seems like actual terms and not just marketing BS.