The other side of the coin is that IoT stuff that accepts anyone's connection from anywhere is vulnerable to hack attacks. Sure, you could secure it with a FID

The other side of the coin is that IoT stuff that accepts anyone's connection from anywhere is vulnerable to hack attacks. Sure, you could secure it with a FIDO2 key or PKI or something, if you made it so that the crypto didn't rely on PII/contact info. But you see, this is consumer equipment. Nobody will purchase FIDO keys or buy in to PKI, with all the joys of manual certificate management. Nobody in the IoT field wants to support that stuff even if hobbyists were into it. The laundry room here is managed by a very large service company. They previously had web pages where anyone on the Internet could watch washers and dryers count down until they were finished. It was simple, it didn't use Flash, it worked for me from any device. Then they "upgraded" and ruined everything. The laundry room is now full of Bluetooth signals, QR codes, mobile app posters, funny money that you reload into the app to pay for your laundry. It's a nightmare. Thank God they still accept coins. But laundry rooms are high-profile targets for vandalism, abuse, inept usage, and all sorts of opportunities for breakage. I welcome central registration. A stable email address is the least I can do if it means that the machines can be serviced, and there is recourse for vandals and thieves.