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My Sony "smart" TV has updated itself and tried to force me to use a new app

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Re: My Sony "smart" TV has updated itself and tried to force me to use a new app

#31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am quite angry that my PS4 is full of ads. I paid money for that box. What I want is a law that requires a product to clearly indicate if it has ads or not in the software, and it cannot change at any point in the product's life. So I know what the price tag actually is. Edit: I want to be clear. I am not against advertising or the freedom for a manufacturer to decide that advertising is their business model. What…

The money you paid for your PS4 barely covers manufacturing costs.

This doesn't mean anything in and of itself. Consoles enable other sales-peripherals, games, other software, etc.

Re: My Sony "smart" TV has updated itself and tried to force me to use a new app

#32

I have a Samsung TV with built in apps and a suspicious privacy policy, so I plugged in a Roku and never use the built in apps.

I thought about this but I discovered that my Roku has the same things going on behind the scenes with respect to data "visibility", or, "sharing".

What they need to do is just to make the panel with no network features. I ended up simply disconnecting the tv panel from the net work and using a small pc to get to netflix. Crude, but effective.

Re: My Sony "smart" TV has updated itself and tried to force me to use a new app

#33

This is, sadly, nothing new. See [0], Samsung also did something like this in 2016. I was affected by this, I'm never getting a Samsung TV ever again. [0] http://adage.com/article/digital/samsung-smart-tv-update-for...

I don't get why Samsung bothers too make great products that have shitty software.

My refrigerator shouldn't need to reboot. Or at one point get into an endless reboot cycle. This "smart" but mediocre age needs to go away

Re: My Sony "smart" TV has updated itself and tried to force me to use a new app

#35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am quite angry that my PS4 is full of ads. I paid money for that box. What I want is a law that requires a product to clearly indicate if it has ads or not in the software, and it cannot change at any point in the product's life. So I know what the price tag actually is. Edit: I want to be clear. I am not against advertising or the freedom for a manufacturer to decide that advertising is their business model. What…

The money you paid for your PS4 barely covers manufacturing costs.

And why should I care? If Sony is losing money on each ps4 then it's their problem. It's not like when Amazon clearly made two editions of the Kindle, one more expensive without ads and another cheaper one with them. If I bought the most expensive ps4 version available I should not have the console auto-downloading new games that I might want to try and advertising them on the main screen.

Re: My Sony "smart" TV has updated itself and tried to force me to use a new app

#36
I just picked up a 55" TV, and the troubles I had explaining I did not want any "Smart" features was like explaining to morons that smoking is bad for you. The store had no commission on the sale, but the sales people, all of them, could not understand why I'd not want TV apps and Internet.

Re: My Sony "smart" TV has updated itself and tried to force me to use a new app

#37

The meme of "if you're not paying, you are the product" is, of course, true, but it doesn't acknowledge the host of cases when you are the product even if you're paying . This guy basically paid to be spied on.

Which is why this meme is a half-truth. Other examples include old-world companies like magazines and banks selling our data despite us paying for the service. Even in areas other than privacy, my bank mistreats me far worse than Internet companies like Google and Twitter. Not to mention that in a multi-sided ecosystem, Internet companies need to keep both users and advertisers happy, so even if you're not paying, yo…

my bank mistreats me far worse than Internet companies like Google and Twitter

Oh boy is this true, I'm on my fourth bank for my UK business and they have all been appalling. I'm not very happy with the current one but have given up on the idea that any other might be better.

Re: My Sony "smart" TV has updated itself and tried to force me to use a new app

#38
This is an example of a strategic bind:

Google wants Android to be "cleaner," to better compete with Apple. This means no underhanded service modules or system extensions, and no intrusive or otherwise low quality privileged apps.

Android phones are inexpensive because Google doesn't make money directly from licensing the OS. Barriers to entry are low, competition is fierce, and hardware differentiation is only possible at the high end (e.g. vertically integrated OEMs like Samsung).

This means at the high end Samsung's product managers won't give up making Samsung phone differentiated through things like Bixby, which is a value-subtracted wart on Android, and at the low end, cheap OEMs won't stop taking payments from app makers who monetize by collecting user data.

Google has the power to reject OEM products that violate whatever standards Google chooses to impose on OEMs, but, as Microsoft learned decades ago, standing between a low margin OEM and a few extra dollars per unit is a difficult position. Once a product ships, policing updates is even harder.

If you are wondering "Why can't I get a 'clean' TV, phone, PC, etc?" This is why.

Re: My Sony "smart" TV has updated itself and tried to force me to use a new app

#39

I have a Samsung TV with built in apps and a suspicious privacy policy, so I plugged in a Roku and never use the built in apps.

Roku:

Part I. Information Collection

A. Information you provide

Information you provide Roku through the Roku Services includes, for example, your name, email address, postal address, billing and shipping information, telephone number, product purchase information, credit card and other payment data, product registration information, and demographics. If you connect with Roku’s accounts on third party social networking sites, we may also collect information about your social networking accounts, for example, your name, user name, or handle.

We also collect the personal information of other people, for example, if you provide email addresses of friends for referrals or postal addresses of recipients for gift purchases.

We may also combine information you provide with data we collect automatically (as further described in Section I-B below) and with data we receive from third parties. We may also associate information you provide with information we collect about you from different devices, browsers and platforms.

B. Information we collect automatically

1. Roku Site data

We may automatically collect information related to your use of Roku Sites - for example, we collect your computer’s or mobile device’s operating system type and version, Internet Protocol (IP) address, mobile device ID, access times, browser type and language, and the websites you visited before coming to a Roku Site. We also use cookies and related technologies such as web beacons to better understand your needs, remember your preferences, and to provide targeted advertising. For more information on how we and others use cookies and related technologies on Roku Sites, please click here to review the Roku Cookies Policy.

2. Roku Device data

We regularly and automatically collect information about your Roku Devices and your usage. The collected information includes, for example, the IP address associated with your Roku Devices, your device types and models, device identifiers (including RIDAs as described in Section II-B-2 below), the retailer to whom your Roku Device was shipped, various quality measures, error logs, software version numbers, Wi-Fi network name (SSID – service set identifier) and strength, and information about other devices connected to your Roku Device.

We also collect usage data such as your search history (including letters you key in for searches, and utterances provided if you choose to use voice search (if available on your Roku Device)), search results, content and advertisements you select and view, including through use of automatic content recognition technology (ACR) (see “Smart TV Experience and ACR on Roku TVs” (Section I-B-4) and “Choices regarding Smart TV Experience and ACR on Roku TVs” (Section IV-E), below), and content settings and preferences, channels you add and view, including time and duration in the channels, and other usage statistics.

https://docs.roku.com/doc/userprivacypolicy/en-us

Re: My Sony "smart" TV has updated itself and tried to force me to use a new app

#40
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if you still buy sony products, I can't be sory for you. Such condescension towards those not in the know, even though they are likely allies or soon will be, is pernicious and self-defeating.

I read the condescension as being toward those who /are/ in the know, yet still buy Sony products.

It's condescending to anyone who buys Sony products.
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