It still possibly going to send your designs to China (and you could even question having a device easily capable of starting a fire that is actively connecting to China). The only way I’d use a Bambu is if it’s disconnected from the internet all together, but if I’m not mistaken they need a cloud connection to work in the first place.
My go-to is their “REAL” PLA brand. It’s good quality, is made in NL and comes on cardboard spools.
I am a bit fed up with all the shit they throw in with each order though, there’s only so many pens and stacks of post-its I need. When I remember, I add a line in the notes field to leave it out.
I agree with all you said, but I think a 3D printer is actually a special type of concern next to generic cyber security and privacy, because it can affect the physical world. It’s not unthinkable that the machine can remotely be told to heat up beyond safe levels and as such create a fire risk. Not the type of device that should have an open and active connection to a server somewhere far away in my opinion.
Personally, a 3D printer that has to be connected to a cloud would be a hard no. Even more so when that cloud is located in China without EU or US oversight.
For what it’s worth (annecdotal and n=1 and all that), my Prusa mini has been absolutely flawless for 3 years now. I would buy it again even at a higher price point than the current.
It is fairly well known that hackers backed by the Chinese government have targeted and infiltrated critical infrastructure in the West, for example https://theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/19/fbi-china-hack-infrastructure and https://www.reuters.com/technology/us-disrupts-chinese-botnet-targeting-critical-infrastructure-fbi-says-2024-01-31/ . The assumption is that this will be exploited in case of a future conflict.
It is not unthinkable that starting a bunch of fires in houses all across the country to overload emergency services and cause general unrest and chaos, is part of this strategy.