#I shouldn't have to give up my privacy and security to use a connectivity feature

[thesaltyace]

We went shopping for a fridge last year and ended up not buying one because of the connectivity bullshit. I wanted to get a fridge that fit our space better, but decided to keep the current one because I refuse to have a fridge that insists on being connected to the internet.

When we bought our last range, I had an incredibly difficult time finding what I wanted (convection oven) that didn't connect to the internet. The one with the features I liked the most LOCKED YOU OUT OF CERTAIN OVEN FEATURES until you connected it to the internet. And it locked them again when you disconnected, so if you had an internet outage you couldn't use the convection setting (arguably the most important feature I wanted). Why the hell would I buy an oven that locks the key feature I want behind internet connectivity? It's a fucking OVEN, why does it need to be connected to the internet at all? I bought a dumb range with zero connectivity and it works perfectly (Frigidaire to the rescue again, I love them).

A couple years ago, we thought our decade-old TV died. We shopped for a new one. There were ZERO dumb tv options available in the same size (46"). There was exactly one available in a much smaller size. We went home, cracked that old sucker open, tested everything with a multimeter, shrugged because we couldn't find anything wrong, and put it back together. It worked again. No idea what we did. But it was alive. We're still using it because we cannot stomach having a smart tv.

I understand that my phone is collecting a crapton of data and sending it who knows where. That doesn't mean I want every major appliance and electronic device in my home to do the same. Privacy concerns aside, do you trust that these manufacturers are keeping these devices secure and addressing security vulnerabilities? We know for a fact that they aren't. Connecting these smart devices to your network could give bad actors easier access to more important devices connected to the same network - like your phone or computer.

I loathe that so many things are connected for the sole purpose of sending data for marketing purposes. I loathe that the smart features arguably make the product worse (for instance - smart tvs appear to be laggy as fuck with no exceptions). I loathe that features can be added or taken away via that mandatory connectivity instead of me being able to buy something that just fucking works and will continue to fucking work as long as I maintain and use it properly. And I hate that companies now treat connectivity as though it it's a standard thing even when the device absolutely doesn't need it to properly function. They treat it like a feature for your convenience when really it's for theirs.

Bah. 😤