cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/51856491
Here’s how to opt out.
Archived version: https://archive.is/20251027141201/https://www.theverge.com/report/806797/samsung-family-hub-smart-fridge-ads-opt-out
The irony of this article being paywalled is the chef’s kiss.
Cool, they’re giving me a free $2,000 fridge? Because there’s no way I’d have that fridge otherwise.
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.
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).
I have a feeling the alarm you’re talking about is a temperature alarm, not for the door. It’s just that leaving the door open will raise the temperature eventually.
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.
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.
I can totally see it going the same general way as TVs.
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.
I would pry the screen off and dig out the WIFI device if it came down to no other option.
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.
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.
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?!
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)
An old cooler with gas station ice is preferable to this bloated spy crap they’re producing nowadays.
No, won’t look like anything as I will never buy a product like that.
I believe I will continue to use the same fridge that has been in the house since the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Only problem is they become noisy when the coolant leaks out. This is the technical problem they should be solving.
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.
Maybe we are all in the bad place.
So it’s a billboard with a build in beer cooler?
such bullshit
Opt out is idiotic. Don’t buy this shit! You to not own it. What fuckwit dumbass rents a fridge someone else controls for $2k. I bet it has a camera inside to sell grocers a list of what to mark up for your custom pricing nonsense because you bought a billboard that screams I’m a gullible moron with more money than sense.
If you eat like shit, that info can be sold to health providers, insurance for that sweet sweet premium increases too.
I need my refridgerator to be a box.
A box that gets cold inside.
Thats it. Just a cold box.
I also want it dispense cold water. That’s not a requirement, just nice to have.
I just wish I could buy a cold box, a hot box, a spinny-arm water box and a spinny-drum water box without computer chips in them at all.
So we need a robust, failsafe open source motor controller with minimal firmware or just heavy duty relays and analog timers.
It needs a brain, but only enough to record the cycles from the factory controller and then replay them after replacement.
Here’s what they look like on my fridge:
I would not buy appliances with ads,
I would not buy them, Sam-I-Am.That’s the main issue here. This fridge didn’t show ads when people bought it.
So buying things that don’t show ads isn’t enough. You need to only buy things that don’t get updates.Yeah, that just makes this so sinister.
What I mean is that my fridge doesn’t have a screen. So if Panasonic decided to show me ads on a fridge where the most complicated feature is the ice maker, that would be a neat trick.
Receives a letter at home from Panasonic containing a message, a color printed sheet and a fridge magnet.
Message reads: “Dear costumer, please use enclosed fridge magnet to hang provided advert sheet on your Panasonic refrigerator”
Funny you say that, in Japan it’s common to get business magnets in your junk mail. Stuff like cleaners, in-home therapy, etc.
We did too… Like 10 years ago. I haven’t seen that nonsense in a while. The closest thing is a coupon calendar.
But… Do you need the LCD panel? Will the box still get cold without it? Cause I do have a hammer…
I would not buy them here or there. I would not buy them anywhere. I do not like appliances with ads. I do not like them Sam-I-Am.
Not in my house
Not in a flat
Don’t make me grouse
I do not want that!
I can’t think of a single thing on a fridge that needs to be smart.
The people designing them should be smart. Should be…
ads
its the same people that bought the 2k beds, and aws froze and heated up the beds.
Not 2k beds. 2k bed covers. You still needed your own bed.
I thought I read about beds also being stuck in a reclined position.
That version is significantly more expensive. Still requires you to bring your own mattress lol
that is so much worst, not even a bed, but a bed cover lol. people were discussing how they wernt pulling the plug on the 2k covers, because they would have to admit they spent 2k on a smart"bedc over"
Nothing needs to be, but I do like to monitor door status and temperature for my fridge and deep freezers with home assistant.
Have these functions actually proved useful? I think I’ve had maybe one fridge failure in my entire lifetime that resulted in a complete loss of contents. And many dumb fridges these days have open door alarms.
The door monitor mostly helps when a kid walks off leaving it open thinking they closed it.
The freezer temperature monitoring has saved the contents several times. A breaker had tripped once and I didn’t notice, it let me know that I needed a generator during a power outage, and one of the kids snuck an ice cream and left the lid wide open.
So yeah, it’s been useful. It’s not needed 99% of the time.
Hmm, my fridge is in my kitchen, which is in the middle of the house. I’ve never been in a situation where the fridge door has been open more than a couple minutes without me noticing, and I have three kids.
I’ve had two fridges die (well, the same one twice), and that sucked, but there’s not much I could do about it even if I knew a few hours earlier, and I use the fridge enough I’ll notice within a few hours. Refrigerator deliveries often happen after a few days, and I’m not going to keep stocking ice during that period, I’ll just consume what I can and move the important stuff to the mini fridge or chest freezer.
It would be cool, sure, but it’s not worth having it connected to the internet.
An alarm that beeps when the door is left open more than X minutes (say, 5 minutes) only requires a stupidly simple circuit and about $5 in parts.
No smarts needed (though it’s probably cheaper to make it with a microcontroller than have the timer circuit be done with discrete parts).
The only time I’ve ever lost anything from a fridge was when an apartment complex preemptively cleared out the last of our belongings before we finished moving out.
And that was 30 years ago.
deleted by creator
To Home Assistant! The cause of, and solution to, all of life’s problems. 🍻
And here’s how to opt out.
I’m opting out by buying a significantly cheaper non-smart fridge. Which luckily is still an option.
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