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After luring customers with low prices, Amazon stuffs Fire TVs with ads
201–210 of 292 posts
Re: After luring customers with low prices, Amazon stuffs Fire TVs with ads
#202Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wouldn't say I'm 100% OK with it, more just accepted it. I don't think there's any real way around it with a streaming lifestyle. The streaming device wants data, the services want data. Even my TV I believe asked if it can view what's on the screen. Even if I had a dumb TV, and a secure trustworthy streaming box, the services themselves(Netflix et al) are collecting the same data, no?
>Even if I had a dumb TV, and a secure trustworthy streaming box, the services themselves(Netflix et al) are collecting the same data, no? Collecting, yes, but not selling. ONN explicitly says they do so in their privacy policy. https://onntvsupport.com/privacy-policy >We may disclose “blinded” aggregated data and user statistics to prospective partners and other third parties. Blinded data is data that does not iden…
It's a pretty blurry line between sharing and selling, and if it's not, these companies should really make their privacy policies more clear.
Netflix says - https://help.netflix.com/legal/privacy
We may share information collected from or about you with Advertisers and/or Ad Measurement Companies to select advertisements, and measure and improve advertising effectiveness. As a reminder, please see the Information from Other Sources section above if you have questions regarding the role of Advertisers or Ad Measurement Companies.
Hulu says - https://press.hulu.com/privacy-policy
We may share information collected from or about you with third parties as explained further below, including business partners, social networking services, service providers, advertisers, and other companies that are not affiliated with Hulu.
Re: After luring customers with low prices, Amazon stuffs Fire TVs with ads
#203Earlier quoted context omitted.
>These shows take pseudo-commercial breaks and send you 2-3 ads tailored to you specifically. My wife didn't believe it until I did a simple Amazon search on my phone for automotive batteries. Not more than 30 minutes later the ads switched to some random LiPo battery for RVs. This is so depressing. We're living in the future and it's awful.
Eh, it could be worse. For a while Hulu thought I was Hispanic and living in Texas. Got a lot of ads for the Texas Lottery with Spanish audio.
I sometimes spam Youtube’s “visit website” button. Just to cost them money. Now Youtube thinks I’m really interested in [that ad from that day] and now shows me all competitors.
Re: After luring customers with low prices, Amazon stuffs Fire TVs with ads
#204Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're making the mistake of assuming the ad is for the best offer you'd be interested in instead of the one that makes the most money from you (i.e. the worst one for you). The expected utility to you is negative.
>You're making the mistake of assuming the ad is for the best offer you'd be interested in instead of the one that makes the most money from you (i.e. the worst one for you). The expected utility to you is negative. A customer buying something isn't a zero-sum transaction. My default assumption is that the product that stands to make the most money from me is the one that would most benefit me. For example, the groce…
That's again assuming the system is making good recommendations for you. That's not what they're meant to do. A much better analogy is you go to the grocery store. The clerk knows you like apples and says "hey, I've got a bag of Johnny's apples here for $6", and pulls out a bag with a sticker that says "Johnny's" on it. Next person comes in, and the clerk offers them a bag of Dan's apples for $3.
The bags come from the same orchard. Same tree. You paid for a sticker. The clerk just knows you make enough money not to notice because they have a dossier on every person in town.
Re: After luring customers with low prices, Amazon stuffs Fire TVs with ads
#205Earlier quoted context omitted.
My particular TV, if it's never been connected to the internet, will not show any ads. It will show a notification that it isn't connected to the internet when you turn it on, but it will work fine otherwise. It'll even switch to the correct video input if you power it on through that port, say through a firetv stick. Otherwise, there's a setting for power on behaviour: 1. go to home screen 2. Go to last used input.
Even better, if you can avoid accepting the ToS for the apps, they don't even start. My Samsung TV is so snappy now because I reset it and ignore the accept ToS button :)
Makes sense.
Telemetry takes packets out of your bandwidth.
These boxes have constant calls so… yeah free that space up
Re: After luring customers with low prices, Amazon stuffs Fire TVs with ads
#206Earlier quoted context omitted.
Eh, it could be worse. For a while Hulu thought I was Hispanic and living in Texas. Got a lot of ads for the Texas Lottery with Spanish audio.
I sometimes spam Youtube’s “visit website” button. Just to cost them money. Now Youtube thinks I’m really interested in [that ad from that day] and now shows me all competitors.
I think polluting the data with random shit is the way to go. The mix of ads becomes somewhat entertaining, including the knowledge that I'll never buy any of this stuff.
Re: After luring customers with low prices, Amazon stuffs Fire TVs with ads
#207I bought a dumb TV from Walmart a few months ago (65" 4K). The brand is Sceptre. Picture quality is pretty much the same as any other 4K TV that you will get for I am not the kind of person that is willing to spend $1000+ on a TV and I don't expect to get the same audio/video quality as that kind of TV will offer. But at my all-in price of about $500, it is outstanding package. We've got an AppleTV, a Wii-U, and a DV…
You can start most Google TVs in "dumb" mode, can't you? I know Sony definitely does have that option available when you first turn them on. https://support.google.com/googletv/answer/10408998?hl=en - Use your device without a Google Account - Use your device without an internet connection
Our previous TV used the Roku OS and also had the option to use the device without an account or internet connection.
What we found was that it still dedicated a lot of space to features that required the non-existent internet and on more than one occasion it started suggesting that we should connect to the internet. I am pretty sure that if your kids accidentally click on some internet-required thing, it will take that as a signal that perhaps you've changed your mind and want to start using it as a smart TV. I find that annoying. Also, menu navigation was agonizingly slow :)
Re: After luring customers with low prices, Amazon stuffs Fire TVs with ads
#208Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why can't you access it from any of the tv boxes (ie Apple TV or any other) and just use the TV itself as one big screen, a bunch of pixels and nothing else?
It’s built into the TV. Why buy an extra box that also shows ads?
Yes, exactly. Most people (perhaps not representative of the audience here) do not want extra boxes, wires, steps, or setup. They like that it's all built into the TV. Ads are just a fact of life to them, they don't really even register as a concern.
Re: After luring customers with low prices, Amazon stuffs Fire TVs with ads
#209Roku has done the same thing with their appliance. If anyone from Roku is listening, I would pay a significant premium to never again see an ad.
i once bought a 1st or second gen Kindle on sale ($20 off). It would put a static add on the home page when turned off. To get rid of thne ad, I had to pay $20.
Re: After luring customers with low prices, Amazon stuffs Fire TVs with ads
#210The trick is to never give your TV access to the internet and to pair it with an Apple TV. If you buy a TV and it won't even boot or work without an internet connection - return it and get a different one.
Ugh, the Vizio I have became cancer after awhile. Even with it offline, it will automatically change the input to their spyware entertainment app after 10 seconds of no input. No ability to disable this malicious automatic switch.