Here’s how to opt out.
  • asg101@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    0·
    3 days ago

    Never will I ever get an appliance that reports everything to the internet (advertisers) and forces ads into my home. Fuck them all, there is absolutely nothing they can offer that is worth the spying and intrusion.

  • Krompus@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    3 days ago

    Happy with my ad-free dumb fridge.

    Let me know when the smart fridge can track when I’m low on essentials and toggle them unchecked on my shopping list, WITHOUT phoning home, and with no fucking ads. Don’t need a screen either.

    • TigerAce@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      0·
      1 day ago

      Nope. Don’t want a fridge to track what I eat. Don’t want anything to track my data unwanted, just give me a fridge which cools and has a working door. No fancy features, just basic functionality and silent. No smart dishwasher, oven, microwave, washing machine, tooth brush, bed, watch, home hub, locks, lights, etc. I want a smart phone and a smart girlfriend.

      • Krompus@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        1 day ago

        WITHOUT phoning home

        If the data is offline, then it only serves you without selling you out. I know it’s unrealistic; why would any corporation make something that benefits consumers and not themselves?!

  • melsaskca@lemmy.caEnglish
    0·
    3 days ago

    An old cooler with gas station ice is preferable to this bloated spy crap they’re producing nowadays.

  • ssillyssadass@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    3 days ago

    Unless you build it and code it yourself, do not get a smart device at any cost. Even if they’re on sale for $5. (Unless you’re just planning on reselling them I guess)

    • 3abas@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      3 days ago

      There’s a future coming where every fridge sold will come with a screen for ads, and not necessarily any other smart features.

      Once people accept this shit, there’s no going back.

      • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        0·
        3 days ago

        I sure hope not, it’s hard enough to find nonsucking TVs, I really don’t want to have to find an “industrial” fridge just to get a regular one.

      • GreenKnight23@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        3 days ago

        and that future will include me ripping out the network connection cards from the primary boards.

        if that bricks it, I’ll just have to setup an “internet” connection.

      • Echo Dot@feddit.ukEnglish
        0·
        3 days ago

        I have never bought a fridge in my life. When I bought this house the owner just left the current fridge behind it has no branding at all and is basically a white box. The only smart feature it has is that it beeps if you leave the door open (although honestly it’s not really much use since it only starts beeping after 10 minutes which I feel like is too long).

        • 3abas@lemmy.worldEnglish
          0·
          3 days ago

          If it has a screen, theyll put ads on it. If it doesn’t have a screen, they’ll add a screen, then put ads on it.

  • Lushed_Lungfish@lemmy.caEnglish
    0·
    4 days ago

    I believe I will continue to use the same fridge that has been in the house since the fall of the Berlin Wall.

  • ilinamorato@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    4 days ago

    This is an amazing article. I’m serious. Very well written. This is my favorite part:

    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.”

    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.”

    Do these people actually believe this? Do they see advertisements in their own lives and think, “ah yes, that was useful and contextual. That was a helpful ad, elegantly elevating my information.” I’ve seen some delusional people in executive-level roles, but that would be a special new class of delusion. Nobody likes ads. I recognize that some people have higher and lower tolerances for them, but nobody is actually grateful for them. Right?! I need to believe this is true.

    Both companies claim they want to offer “curated,” “relevant” ads that might “enhance the experience.” I can buy that to some extent when it’s ads for features that your smart fridge or smart display offers. This tech is complicated and capable, and most people only tap into a fraction of what their devices can do.

    That’s generous. But ok, maybe I can grant the premise.

    But there is no future where third-party advertisements will ever be welcome in people’s homes like this — even if they happen to show me a brand of pet food right when my dog is looking at me with hungry eyes.

    Right. Exactly. No matter what, I can think of no situation in which an ad is serving the customer’s interests. Maybe in the case of a coupon? But even then, I think it’s dubious.

    • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      0·
      3 days ago

      I like TikTok ads. I am not a material person, so I am generally hard to shop for. But since TikTok came out, I am able to provide a list for people of cool gadgets and stuff that aren’t too expensive. Do I like any other ads? No…

      • ilinamorato@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        3 days ago

        Interesting. I have not had that experience, on Tiktok or elsewhere. I do have a similar experience with tech reviewers’ videos on Youtube, though. Albeit not the sponsored ones.

  • SaraTonin@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    4 days ago

    Worth pointing out that that “Target figured out a girl was pregnant before her father did” story is almost certainly untrue: https://www.predictiveanalyticsworld.com/machinelearningtimes/target-really-predict-teens-pregnancy-inside-story/3566/

    I agree with the article that getting ads on a device you’ve already paid for with no hint that there would be ads is intrusive and a sad sign of how tech is going (in the same week that it was announced that Apple are going to be adding ads to Maps, too). But I also can’t help but wonder - who the fuck wants a smart fridge? Like, legitimately, what is the advantage over a normal fridge?

    • ilinamorato@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      4 days ago

      Not a “smart” fridge per se, but I can see the use of a screen on my fridge; something where we can see our family calendar, leave notes for each other, and maybe also be able to access the grocery shopping list. Weather would be nice too, though you can keep the news widget (yikes). Something in a visible location in our house, where we go every day.

      I’m not sure what other features they advertise with a smart fridge, but those few would be nice; especially if I could just plug a raspberry pi into it and skip all of the Samsung nonsense entirely.

      • bitchkat@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        4 days ago

        I don’t even like water/ice dispensers on the door. I love the interior water dispensers.

        • ilinamorato@lemmy.worldEnglish
          0·
          4 days ago

          We’re a family of six, and the kids don’t have phones. It’s tough to coordinate schedules already and it’s only going to get worse.

          I recognize that I’m an edge case.

            • ilinamorato@lemmy.worldEnglish
              0·
              3 days ago

              We’ve tried paper. And dry-erase. The problem is that we keep our calendars and todos and schedules on our phones, which don’t automatically update the paper; and by the second week, we tend to just stop manually updating it. There’s a paper calendar in my office that I just flipped to October last week (from August).

              The only way that really seems to work, where we don’t forget an event, is having a single digital shared calendar.

              • NewNewAugustEast@lemmy.zipEnglish
                0·
                3 days ago

                and the kids don’t have phones.

                So just the two of you?

                Also, if you do end up sharing a digital calendar on a device you already have, what is the fridges for?

                • ilinamorato@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  0·
                  3 days ago

                  My wife and I have phones where we keep our shared calendars, yes. But we have four kids who also have their own lives and schedules, and they often want to know what’s going on, what our plans are, etc. They would value being able to see the day’s upcoming events, too; when the play dates are, when the dentist appointments are, when the days off of school are, what we’re eating for dinner, all of that. Currently, their only access to that information is through our phones.

                  Having a screen in the kitchen that only shows calendars and a couple of other pieces of data would be useful. We wouldn’t want to be able to watch videos or browse websites on it, though.

          • TehWorld@lemmy.worldEnglish
            0·
            4 days ago

            You’re not an edge case. My family isn’t that large but we still have challenges with this exact thing.

            There’s a screen device that my wife gets incessantly advertised to her that is probably a better option than it being built into a fridge that has been engineered to last 3 weeks longer than the warranty.

  • reluctant_squidd@lemmy.caEnglish
    0·
    4 days ago

    So, what happens if I use pi-hole or adguard to block DNS for the advertisement TLDs, like I do for all the other gizmos in the house trying to show me ads or obtain telemetry data?