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Comment by bgbntty2 | Hacker News Reader

Why would people even buy something like a smart TV if they know it's highly likely that it's created to spy on them? It's not a necessity, so maybe just don't get a smart TV in the first place? Otherwise, how sure you are it won't search for an open Wi-Fi or that it doesn't have a cellular connection?

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Because intentionally non-smart TVs are an increasingly niche, and thus expensive market, and not a categorical upgrade from simply not connecting a smart TV to the internet, while benefitting from the manufacturer subsidy from advertisers.

Even if dumb TVs were manufactured at a cost comparable to smart TVs (at the same volume, they'd be cheaper to manufacture!), smart TVs are subsidized by the expected behavioral tracking & ad sale revenue.

Why would someone buy a car with a stereo? Why would someone buy something like jeans with a zipper?

Because the stereo doesn't spy on us (hopefully). If it did, I wouldn't buy one, as it's not a necessity, either.

The zipper also doesn't spy on us... yet? When smart zippers become the norm and you can't find jeans with dumb zippers, I'll return to using buttons even if they're a bit annoying to deal with.

Good luck finding a modern car that doesn't have a stereo. And continuing the analogy, good luck finding jeans without a zipper. When the only affordable and available options spy on you, it's simple enough to keep them air gapped from the internet... Electing not to own these devices at all is a much tougher sell.

Right, but the cars here now have to have some kind of GPS tracker thing built in. And the Jeans are 1% elastacine? so that they fall to bits in the Sun after 6 months. I remember a pair of real denim jeans I picked up in the states that lasted me 10 years.

Quality has gone out of everything in the last 15+ years.

So these items, along with anything marked Smart == Ad platform, or AI == Future Ad platform, are on my 'will not buy on principle' list regardless of need or wants.

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