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Comment by roscas | Hacker News Reader

"Samsung Family Hub™ for 2025 Update Elevates the Smart Home Ecosystem The software update includes a more unified user experience across connected devices, enhancements to AI Vision Inside™, expanded Knox Security and more"

In plain English now, Samgung will put advertising on your face but mostly important is that they will know and sell the data about what you buy.

They call it Smart Home. Yeah, "smart". They are the smart ones, not those who buy this **.

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I don’t see where it says they are adding advertising. Is something there corporate speak for ads?

Buried half way down,

    As part of the Family Hub™
    software update, we are 
    piloting a new widget
    for select Cover screens
    themes of Family Hub™ 
    refrigerators. The 
    widget will display 
    useful day-to-day
    information such as 
    news, calendar and 
    weather forecasts, along 
    with curated 
    advertisements.[11]

Wow!! Elevating!!!

If by that they mean owners will elevate their fridge to the highest window in their building and throw it out, then yeah, they're right.

At least the ads are curated?

Yes, selling to the highest bidders is a form of curation.

The curation process is an automated auction

Only the best ads for you!

It’s buried in the “new widgets” section:

> As part of the Family Hub™ software update, we are piloting a new widget for select Cover screens themes of Family Hub™ refrigerators. The widget will display useful day-to-day information such as news, calendar and weather forecasts, along with curated advertisements

If you look closely, there's an ad in the picture where the fridge's clock says 12:30.

"Shop Samsung Water Filters - Subscribe and Save 40%"

"Elevating" is being used as a euphemism for "constantly advertising"

> Update Elevates the Smart Home Ecosystem

If you are not elevating the privacy of me and my family, CORPORATRON can suck it.

I will spend my money to elevate the sales of a company that respects privacy instead.

> I will spend my money to elevate the sales of a company that respects privacy instead.

Is there such a thing?

Sometimes it matters that the original business isn’t getting the sale. Probably not in this particular case though.

Someone my spouse knows recently bought one of the $3500 models that’s getting this, and said person was in the “test” group for the rollout. Their response to the situation has been that they won’t buy Samsung appliances ever again.

So if enough of us do that. Maybe.

But hey, your fridge is now more secure because blockchain (I'm not kidding, it's in the press release)

It appears to also use a peer-to-peer solution to preventing botnets. So a botnet to prevent botnets.

I wonder if the botnets attend conferences.

I'm not fact-checking that because that's horrifying. Beyond parody. But I guess that's a trend currently.

Edit: I checked because one shouldn't be outraged without fact checking. It's true.

It’s not a million miles from the Silicon Valley smart fridge plot, as long as someone hacks them all.

It is in the notes, in the article, there is no tracking:

"[11] Ads on Family Hub Cover screens will serve contextual or non-personal ads. Family Hub devices are not collectiong personal information or tracking consumers."

I don't believe them, but if even they aren't lying to your face today they'll be pushing an update to add tracking tomorrow. Samsung is absolute trash and not to be trusted. They've demonstrated this so many times and in so many ways that anyone investing in "Samsung Family Hub" deserves what they get.

Thanks, I hate it.

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