413
Man discovers his parents’ coffee machine used 1TB of data in 10 days
(www.dexerto.com)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2026
413 points (96.8% liked)
Enshittification
5312 readers
1 users here now
What is enshittification?
The phenomenon of online platforms gradually degrading the quality of their services, often by promoting advertisements and sponsored content, in order to increase profits. (Cory Doctorow, 2022, extracted from Wikitionary) source
The lifecycle of Big Internet
We discuss how predatory big tech platforms live and die by luring people in and then decaying for profit.
Embrace, extend and extinguish
We also discuss how naturally open technologies like the Fediverse can be susceptible to corporate takeovers, rugpulls and subsequent enshittification.
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
Regardless if this is true or not I will never buy a “smart” device again. Why does my refrigerator need internet connection to cool my food?!?!
It doesn't, they want an internet connection so they can track your food usage and then sell your more food, they want your money forever
Ughh okay sure I guess my example was “extreme” But the point stands, there are smart appliances out there that literally lock you out of using them without internet connection.
The issue is actually why it needs to run a entire OS just to brew coffee with 5 or so options over remote?
The fridge app can use the phone's microphone to find out which compressor frequencies resonate loudly in the room, and avoid them.
When everyone's phones are away, the fridge can pre-cool and make noise, and then go silent when someone is nearby, according to the motion detector.
Or you could just get an inverter compressor and have a quiet fridge.
My previous LG fridge with an inverter controlled linear compressor was loud. It liked to run the compressor at 60Hz a lot, which fit my concrete apartment badly, so I had loud spots and quieter spots. Sounded like a car was idling outside. The compressor was mounted too rigidly, so the vibration conducted to the frame, making the fridge body work as a loudspeaker diaphragm. The cold air fan was loud too, whooshing. The best feature was soft start from a short stroke, so it sneaked up to full noise over a minute.
My current similar LG likes to run the compressor at a much lower frequency, producing infrasound, below hearing range. The cold air fan is quieter but still bothersome sometimes.
LG is notorious for really shitty compressors that resulted in a class action lawsuit. Not the best example
No just no
I just worry we're not going to have a choice.
It's a valid worry but I think there will always be companies wanting to make cheaper models. You might have less choice of brand, but probably not no choice.
The smart part isn't the problem.
The internet connection is.
Use smart devices on protocols like Z-Wave or Zigbee, which set up their own separate network. And then prevent the controller from ever reaching the internet so none of the devices can access it. Through things like Mac Blacklisting.
You will still be able to access everything while on your local network.
Yeahhh when I buy a fridge I don’t want to have to reconfigure my whole ding dang life just to make sure it works sort of okay and isn’t stealing my data.
Still seems like another moving part that will eventually lead to my food not being cold because something broke.
Not defending. But it can be used to send notifications when the door is left open or the temp is too high. Same with *washers when they send you notifications when they're done or when there is an issue.
The problem is that cooperations are gready bastards, instead of using the tech to do just that, they mine it to get more out of their customers.
Look at cars, a screen is great to show reversing camera and navigation, but the greedy automakers use it to display ads, spy on your habbits, replace physical buttons, ... etc