Comment on Here’s what ads on your $2,000 Samsung smart fridge will look like
lvxferre@mander.xyz 3 days ago
However, Samsung is giving users the option to turn off ads.
For now, like the author herself mentions later on (“The bigger issue is that of trust. […] that’s today.”)
I asked Higby why they were bringing ads to the fridges. He said via email, “This pilot further explores how a connected appliance can deliver genuinely useful, contextual information. The refrigerator is already a daily hub, and we’re testing a responsible, user-controlled way to make that space more helpful.”
What Shane Higby is saying here boils down to “we’re trying to help the user”. But if he said so, in clear words, every bloody body would call it bullshit, because it’s common knowledge companies smear ads on your face for their own sake - not yours. But if you hide it behind fancy words, like “further explores” and “deliver” and the likes, it’s harder to call the bullshit.
I’m getting real tired of this shit.
This is similar to the justification Panos Panay, Amazon’s head of Devices & Services, made to me last month when I asked him about advertising on its Echo devices. He said it was looking to be “elegantly elevating the information that a customer needs.”
Emphasis mine. You can always trust Amazon in one thing: belittling the user.
[Higby] "…future promotions will depend on the feedback and insights gained from the program.”
Translation: “we’re just testing the waters now. Let’s see if the suckers swallow it or spit it.”
The problem here isn’t just the ads themselves (although they are a problem); it’s that they are being added to the device after it’s in my home.
[Warning, IANAL.] Fight this shit. Seriously, fight it. On legal grounds. What they’re doing should be outright illegal in most countries; it’s equivalent to changing a contract unilaterally after both parties signed it.
Additionally, I’d strongly advise against buying any sort of “smart” device, unless you’re pretty sure any benefit outweight all the risks of connecting your household appliances to the internet. Including corporations and crackers taking control of it, building kill switches into it, etc.
TehPers@beehaw.org 2 days ago
Yes, this should be illegal, but it’s already common practice. I’m just hoping that enough of this will eventually get people to stop buying these products, and hopefully we can start seeing some real legislation against it in some countries.
This should be obvious at this point. “Smart” just means “internet-connected”, and we already know what happens to every device that connects to a remote server during regular operation: telemetry (and not the nice debugging kind but the “what do you use” kind), and advertisements.
The “crackers” part of this confuses me. Samsung is a Korean company. The chairman’s name is Lee Jae-yong (이재용). Samsung NA’s CEO is Yoonie Joung. Maybe I’m misreading this?
lvxferre@mander.xyz 2 days ago
Problem is, people won’t stop buying them. Often “smart” products are sold comparatively cheaper, because the business expects additional profits through ads; and if Samsung is going this way (ads on your fridge), it’ll do it.
By “crackers” I mean “black hat hackers”. The sort of people who’d love to drop some ransomware into your fridge and then say “if you don’t want me to brick your fridge, pay me a few bucks”.
(After some websearch, apparently Americans use it as a derogatory term. I wasn’t aware of that.)
TehPers@beehaw.org 2 days ago
Ok I just misread it then, sorry!
lvxferre@mander.xyz 2 days ago
No problem - miscommunication happens.