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Slashdot recently carried a discussion thread regarding an interview that the Vizio CTO, Mr. Baxter, gave to a Verge reporter at the 2019 CES show. As you may recall, Vizio was fined $17 million dollars (or about $1 per user) for spying on viewing habits without sufficient disclosure or a means to opt-out. According to Mr. Baxter, Vizio is now a leader in consumer privacy, which likely has more to do with the fine they received than actually being champions of consumer privacy. Mr. Baxter is open to building non-spyware TVs, though he noted that they would require a higher profit margin up-front to make it worthwhile. Also, allegedly few users are opting out of getting spied on, which is why Vizio is giving users the option to opt-out rather than selling a separate non-spyware TV panel.
Transmittal of viewing habits (once a second) is allegedly one of the ways that Vizio keeps its end-user prices so low. It also allegedly pays for the upkeep of the Apps running on the TV. Equally interesting was the assertion by an alleged Smart TV SOC designer on slashdot that OEMs are looking at multiple avenues to collect the data as part of standards processes, up to and including out-of-band approaches to transmitting the collected data back to the OEM. Who knows if the assertion is true, I imagine these out-of-band approaches will likely be too expensive in the short term to be economical (i.e. $5 / TV for the hardware plus machine-to-machine data plan vs. the value of the income stream).
However, absent legislation (and I doubt it will happen due to the money involved), the above reinforces for me why so much in our homes may need to be curtailed from contacting the internet, locally-isolated if internet access is necessary, etc. Whether it's Sonos, the Smart TV, the Ring doorbell, or any other iOT/Smart/whatever devices, it's pretty mind-boggling how lax OEMs can be re: consumer privacy and how laser-focused they are at the same time attempting to monetize user data on a post-sale basis.
Trouble is, few consumers seem to care - people are only too happy to add Alexa to their homes, install Wifi-enabled light bulbs, etc. without any regard for what they're giving away in the process. As a result, there aren't (to my knowledge!) easy-to-use router / switch solutions out there that help isolate and sand-box iOT stuff. Folk who want to strike a balance between privacy and being able to use some iOT gear in the home are hence required to delve into somewhat arcane details of managed router / switch setup.
Coming back to FreeNAS, it's a great reason to use FreeNAS and separate audio-visual components (such as a HTPC running PLEX) to enjoy content at home - because you can control what each device in the chain can and cannot do. Bundling multiple levels of functionality into a single "Smart" device may be great from a clutter-reduction point of view but the potential privacy / functionality costs are too high to me.
Such bundles carry the risk of going out of date well before the entirety of the appliance is obsolete - once a critical component no longer meets a specification, you get to replace the entire appliance. Or, as in the case of Sonos, your equipment may receive a mandatory firmware "upgrade" that disables something perfectly functional. I'd rather replace components on a as-needed basis (i.e. my living room LCD TV is 10+ yo) than subsidize lower up-front costs with my data. Many thanks to FreeNAS for helping enable that.
Transmittal of viewing habits (once a second) is allegedly one of the ways that Vizio keeps its end-user prices so low. It also allegedly pays for the upkeep of the Apps running on the TV. Equally interesting was the assertion by an alleged Smart TV SOC designer on slashdot that OEMs are looking at multiple avenues to collect the data as part of standards processes, up to and including out-of-band approaches to transmitting the collected data back to the OEM. Who knows if the assertion is true, I imagine these out-of-band approaches will likely be too expensive in the short term to be economical (i.e. $5 / TV for the hardware plus machine-to-machine data plan vs. the value of the income stream).
However, absent legislation (and I doubt it will happen due to the money involved), the above reinforces for me why so much in our homes may need to be curtailed from contacting the internet, locally-isolated if internet access is necessary, etc. Whether it's Sonos, the Smart TV, the Ring doorbell, or any other iOT/Smart/whatever devices, it's pretty mind-boggling how lax OEMs can be re: consumer privacy and how laser-focused they are at the same time attempting to monetize user data on a post-sale basis.
Trouble is, few consumers seem to care - people are only too happy to add Alexa to their homes, install Wifi-enabled light bulbs, etc. without any regard for what they're giving away in the process. As a result, there aren't (to my knowledge!) easy-to-use router / switch solutions out there that help isolate and sand-box iOT stuff. Folk who want to strike a balance between privacy and being able to use some iOT gear in the home are hence required to delve into somewhat arcane details of managed router / switch setup.
Coming back to FreeNAS, it's a great reason to use FreeNAS and separate audio-visual components (such as a HTPC running PLEX) to enjoy content at home - because you can control what each device in the chain can and cannot do. Bundling multiple levels of functionality into a single "Smart" device may be great from a clutter-reduction point of view but the potential privacy / functionality costs are too high to me.
Such bundles carry the risk of going out of date well before the entirety of the appliance is obsolete - once a critical component no longer meets a specification, you get to replace the entire appliance. Or, as in the case of Sonos, your equipment may receive a mandatory firmware "upgrade" that disables something perfectly functional. I'd rather replace components on a as-needed basis (i.e. my living room LCD TV is 10+ yo) than subsidize lower up-front costs with my data. Many thanks to FreeNAS for helping enable that.
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