The Contract
We, the users, have yielded control over the systems we use bit by bit and handed it over to the tech companies. Opening the devices we use and tinkering with them is increasingly difficult, risks bricking the device and immediately voids all guarantees.
There has always been a vocal group pushing back on this, and there have been other people - like me - who didn't mind. As someone from that latter group, the reason why I didn't mind was an implicit contract between the users and the tech companies.
What I pay as part of this contract is: Data. Telemetry. I don't mean to say that I would be fine with tech companies tracking my each and every movement - I don't! But I am fine with the companies reading my crash reports, some of my logs, which features I use and so on. I have worked long in Product Management and I know that these data are invaluable in deciding what to do next. Where does your product cause friction, which parts are frequently used and which aren't? That's important for product managers to know, and if they act on the data, they can improve the product, so indirectly I am helping them boost sales on their product. Honestly, I am fine with that. Also, in many cases, I am also paying with actual money to buy the product - let's not forget about that!
What I get in return is a product which stays up to date, which gains features which are relevant to me without me having to pay for it, and in general I can simply rely on the products.
I am aware of data breaches, of course, and I don't mean to say that anyone should be oblivious to this. I just think that just because Company A had a leak of very sensitive data, one shouldn't automatically refrain from handing less sensitive data to Company B - though I appreciate the counter-view.
This contract is currently being broken, and I want to describe a specific real world case that honestly makes me wonder if this is even legal.
A couple of years back I wanted to solve one specific problem at home: I wanted our family calendar to be visible in our kitchen area - so that my wife and I could maintain the calendar on our phones, and everyone at home could see what's up for the day. Back then, I only had three options available: Option 1 was a Google Nest display, which I tried out but I found it impossible to only display the calendar. Option 2 were various brittle DIY solutions. And Option 3 was Amazon's Echo Show 15, a wall-mounted monitor which allowed adding multiple widgets, among them: a calendar.
So we bought it. And since we wanted to have a voice assistant, too, we bought some other echos, among them two smaller Echo Shows. One of them is placed in the bathroom, and I look at it every morning.
Around half a year ago I noticed a glimpse of what I would later recognise as a breach of the aforementioned contract. Sometimes, at most once per week, I would glimpse for half a second a screen which looked as if it had the word "Sponsored" on it. It showed up when the smaller echoes switched from night mode to day mode, after turning on the light. I was immediately suspicious.
Now, these devices - which I paid for - have turned into billboards in my home. They display ads at least twice per day and are therefore high up on my "to replace" list. Unsurprisingly, there is no way to disable the ads.
This crosses a line for me, but it gets better, because thus far the bigger Echo wasn't affected. Remember that I bought it to display the calendar? Well, since a week now it sometimes doesn't show the calendar any more, it shows photos full-screen. And when I tap on the button that should bring up the dashboard including the calendar, the device tells me that it would rather show me photos for some time.
That's right - it understands what I want but it tells me that it would rather do something different. What the hell? Why would anyone build such a thing?
I have a hunch. Because ever since I noticed that change on the larger Echo Show, I sometimes see a glimpse of a screen which I swear has the word "Sponsored" on it.