Tag Archives: Smart devices

Vizio tvs enshittification and why I won’t touch them.

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Walmart has recently made move to require a walmart account on your Vizio and ONN branded Tv’s and its not over Watch metrics, its over how much data they can take from you. Its how much they can market your name and sell it off to other Entities. They claim it is a unification, Its not, it is walmart wants your living room, These TV’s likely have microphones in them and worse proximity sensor to know who’s in the room.

Beyond innovation, the results from Walmart and VIZIO are already clear for customers. 65% of surveyed Walmart customers report that CTV ads helped them discover new products3, underscoring the power of placing premium content in front of high-intent shoppers. 

How the fuck did they flavor this question. They probably used a no win question where they gave 5 answers and gave people a no way out. something like “How much do Walmart ads on your VIZIO TV help you learn about new items? 1.Significantly 2. Somewhat 3. A little bit 4. Not much 5. Not at all.. They just flavored the poll to 4 yeses and a no. The poll is bullshit and likely people don’t know what they answered to. Because they will bias the outcome. But Walmart should not have the control over the TV they want. We bought Vizio Tv’s for the game room, for grandma when her tv dies. We dont want to buy a TV for grandma when it makes her able to click the interface and made the home shopping channel in one go because she was watching the big bang theory and walmart spawns and ad for notebooks on sale.

Roku does the injected ad Garbage. Even when you try to turn it off you find ads overlaid on other ads. Roku recently patented technology for “HDMI Customized Ad Insertion.” This allows the TV to monitor the HDMI port. Meaning when you have a monitor for a test while you are checking out someones test results while you are looking up someone’s health roku just made a hipaa violation. Privacy is now a subscription service, the price of getting the subscription is shopping at savers and finding old tv’s that don’t record you while you take a shit. The problem is Walmart is the granddaddy of data from customers , they are the place the FBI turns to when they cant answer a question. they made the reason facebook knows you jerk off because they are reading your watches and phones sensors while you sent memes an hour ago to your work buddy.

The sad part is walmart just leaped over facebooks tracking. Because walmart just stepped up the game. They will probe your phone via the Vizio, Than when you hit the store they will have a tracking Tag that probes your phone again and if you go for the product that was on TV they have your home address, they have your means of payment. they have everything. This needs to stop. With this if you stop to long in an isle walmart will hallucinate that you are buying Plan B while you are pregnant because you dodged out of an isle to talk about something important. In states where birth control is frowned on you could be arrested.

My answer to this as much as I hate it, Buy a Firestick or a google device. Amazon uses Sidewalk, But you can turn that shit off. They are geofenced, they go no further than your TV. They have more regulatory rules to stop them from doing what walmart wants to do. If it is discovered that either them are taking information beyond the boundaries than you know to stop it . If that Vizio or ONN tv refuses to setup without an account, return the TV as a defective product. Make a report to the FCC that the TV is refusing to let you see OTA TV. Under the Telecommunications Act of 1996, specifically the OTARD (Over-the-Air Reception Devices) rule, manufacturers cannot place “unreasonable restrictions” that impair the use of antennas for video programming. There are people out there without internet still and imagine nursing homes being TV locked because no internet.

But honestly at this point I am almost ready to say if you buy a cheap TV , use a cheap Chinese brand, They will track you but the end game what is a Chinese man going to do if you talk about farts with a friend for 45 minutes.

Walmart is creating a surveillance state that the US government is dying for, now if walmart follows through they dont have to do it. Worse yet if Walmart cheats and says “you need the Vizio APP to set up the TV” congrats you have given walmart your location down to the foot.

It’s bad enough in the generation of smart Devices that you need a SCIF to talk about stuff that is under NDA or court injunction because of a divorce or other means. We as the consumers need to place boundaries. we go to the store to get products, we don’t need to spied on at home because we ran out of coffee.

Also, You know all of this is going to further enshitified by AI , The fact you know these TV’s are going to be taking private data, the second you replay the BLURAY/DVD of your child’s birth congratulations, your or your significant others Vagina is on the internet.

Anyways, if you buy a TV read the TOS , privacy policy and be safe. otherwise the assholes win. I need a coffee now…

We need to talk about “smart” devices…

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In this world of AI and smart devices we are leaning towards a smart Armageddon. There are so many stupid smart devices out there. Smart Water bottles ? Fuck that, they are likely stealing your data and location. Smart Toasters? Fuck that you can turn a knob and almost 500$. Smart thing you piss on for tracking hydration.

The sad sad story about this of all of these smart devices that claim to make your life easier are doing one thing. They are taking data from your life apart one piece of data at a time. You end up losing your own agency and sovereignty. They end up selling every piece of your life away for pennies, then reselling that and making more money… if you need a true smart device, buy a whiteboard, it’s safer. it will not steal your data. A whiteboard doesn’t leave you open to marketing unless you pin a pizza advertisement to it. If the smart device company goes out of business you have a Dumb smart brick. You are stuck with someone else’s mistake and a worthless product.

These smart on-the-go devices like water bottles also leak your position in real time with Bluetooth. They are as secure as a screen door on a sub made of paper. Your data also has no chain of ownership, so once your data gets “analyzed” you lost a bit of yourself. You have NO idea where this data is sold off too. This is the sick future of things you will not be able to take a shit without that data being sold off.

If you think about it , a whiteboard is more secure than all of these devices. A smart toaster could leak information about you to an insurance company, You’d have no idea why your rates shot up because they bought data on your carb habits. the piss tracker for hydration could “leak” data saying you are a health risk because you do not drink enough. These billion dollar companies spend more time buying data about you than talking to you. One of the biggest spies in the world …. Walmart!! Walmart could train the CIA. Walmart is turning into a data company that just happens to sell you socks when you need them while tracking your phone. When you are in their stores buying smart shit they follow you around the stores with facial recognition, they likely buy the information from the smart device makers to “help” you make informed decisions. Walmart has used this ecosystem to generate 6.4 billion dollars! they are planing devices inventory tracking that have Bluetooth, the funny thing about that it’s not about that . every time a mobile phone passes these devices will become aware that your phone has passed it . they will map you out through the store and see your exact habits. at that point just buy a cucumber some Vaseline and condoms, While checking out if there are any employees left just say your going to have some fun tonight. Just to screw with metrics. .

But in all when purchasing a “smart” device, ask yourself, Do i really need this device to be smart. Coffee parts are smart enough with the built in clock. your smart enough to put the grinds in the coffee pot , You are smart enough to add water. If you need something more smart, Upgrade to a Prosumer level or a commercial grade. Don’t get distracted by apps , Features you don’t need or See things on your phone. because in the case of the coffee pot you pass by it 20 times a day in your house.

Because, In the end you need to ask yourself, what did they remove to add the “smart” tech. What happens to the device if you lose internet. There are coffeepots out there that already stop working when the internet is off. How reliable is the small computer that tracks you in the device, will a device like a toaster stop working when toasters have worked nearly 100 years if the “smart” dies. The whiteboard is your best device if you need to track things. if you really need a “smart” coffeepot buy a smart plug and a dumb coffeepot with a switch if you really need a smart coffeepot. the plus is less data leaky about your caffeine habits.

Final thoughts here, if you need a smart device that doesn’t really need it , Buy a smart plug. That’s my opinion. The smart plug will leak data but at worst they will leak Wattage use vs hard data. Need a smart crockpot. skip it . buy a smart plug and you can turn it on in the middle of the day and all the smart plug knows is you turned the plug on. Not stuff they sneaked into device or menus asking what you are cooking to have you volunteer more data.

in the end buy a smartplug with 1800w 15a so you don’t burn your house down anciently and moreover don’t give anyone data on when you are cooking your 239842398 alarm chili in your crockpot.

I’m not saying all smart devices are bad, but you need to think about what you are giving up the first time you sign into an app. If you really want to have that “smart” device – Buy a dumb device and use a smart plug, it is cheaper in more ways you than you can count. You do not lose your personal security. A smart plug might give up the energy your using and perhaps some network mapping. A smart device with an app on its own is a spy that will leech every bit of data it can get.

In all that’s my opinion… Now back to my coffee from my non smart pot.