Well, I wasn't the GP but I see their point. Because today, buying a product isn't enough. Subscriptions and rent-seeking is where it's at.
Once you've bought a smart TV, it shouldn't really be any of Roku's business what you watch, but you basically have to airgap any brand of "smart" TV to avoid data collection.
Cars are much more computerized nowadays, so it would not be a stretch to imagine they have data harvesting software somehow (especially in light of Volkwagen's emissions test cheating); but if I've bought a car, it's mine, so why allow that? And then there's Ford's idea to have self-driving vehicles drive them back to the dealership if you miss a payment, which is a lot less time-gracious than missing utilities or anything like that.
The last time I paid for a laptop with Microsoft on it I still got ads shoveled in my face, and of course there's all the telemetry to deal with. Apple had that drama a few months back with people not being able to launch certain apps because some connection to their servers wasn't being made that would allow it, and Apple products go for premium.
It would seem rather prudent to assume that if you buy a product and it is electronic, there is probably some mechanism to transmit data to the manufacturer, because IoT and profit and why the fuck not.
Once you've bought a smart TV, it shouldn't really be any of Roku's business what you watch, but you basically have to airgap any brand of "smart" TV to avoid data collection.
Cars are much more computerized nowadays, so it would not be a stretch to imagine they have data harvesting software somehow (especially in light of Volkwagen's emissions test cheating); but if I've bought a car, it's mine, so why allow that? And then there's Ford's idea to have self-driving vehicles drive them back to the dealership if you miss a payment, which is a lot less time-gracious than missing utilities or anything like that.
The last time I paid for a laptop with Microsoft on it I still got ads shoveled in my face, and of course there's all the telemetry to deal with. Apple had that drama a few months back with people not being able to launch certain apps because some connection to their servers wasn't being made that would allow it, and Apple products go for premium.
It would seem rather prudent to assume that if you buy a product and it is electronic, there is probably some mechanism to transmit data to the manufacturer, because IoT and profit and why the fuck not.