Can't you trivially reframe the initial purchase as being subsidized by that license? Your $200 smart knife sharpener would be $300 if it weren't recording audio 24/7 (for VAD, surely!)
Then I invite them to offer such a product. I would love to buy e.g. YouTube premium, but as far as I know they still collect my data for advertising purposes, they just don't show the ads.
We’ve lived with companies that didn’t need to take pics of my dick while I’m shitting to subsidize their operation for as long as companies were a thing. Anyone saying this dick pic status quo is inevitable and necessary is too VC-brained to be allowed to run a company.
I think you frame it that way you need to offer the other version.
I do wonder how many people would buy non-spy versions of devices given the option. More specifically, what that differential in price would be too. At worst it would be interesting to have a price explicitly stating what our data is worth. Many people actually internalize that it's not that valuable, but doing this would make it explicit.
> I do wonder how many people would buy non-spy versions of devices given the option.
Depending on the discount for the spyware version, I'd guess close to zero. The general public has become completely numb to being spied on. It's hard to get someone to give up $50 (a real cost) for something nebulous like "very slightly less of your life is known by marketing companies".
Its also because people don't trust companies to not spy on them, even when they say they aren't, even when you paid them not to. They still will. So if I see a offer for to pay $100 more for a vacuum that won't spy on me, I think - yeah right, you're going to spy on me AND get any extra hundred bucks.
Sure, that's basically how Kindle pricing works ($X with ads, or $X+$Y without ads) and it's infinitely better having the choice. If Amazon ever gets rid of the without ad version they will lose me as a customer overnight.
Likewise, there are a whole lot of products that don't have an "unsubsidized" version that I simply refuse to purchase (or have purchased and returned after confirming that they will not work when locked in IOT jail where they can't talk to the internet.)
>If Amazon ever gets rid of the without ad version they will lose me as a customer overnight.
Didn't they already remove the option for a completely ad free prime video experience or am I hallucinating that? They have such a ridiculous hold on the e reader market I feel like it is just matter of the next down quarter.
Does it actually make a difference?
I have an old Kindle (from 2013 I think) and I opted for the ad version. I only see ads on the lock screen, which means I never really read the ads. The few times I’ve looked at them intentionally, they were books I’d never consider reading, just from the title and cover; in other words, a terrible ad for the recipient.
Does the ad-free version not collect your data too?
That has been the way things work since the early 2000s. PCs started to come loaded with junk malware, and what those malware makers were willing to pay was the only profit the PC makers were making. Modern smart TVs are exactly at the same place; everybody is adamant that the only profit in TVs is with the sale of the usage data.
Once again, I'm amazed some HN readers, like yourself, are unfamiliar with the basic tenets of the GDPR. (Hint: A company cannot provide a service on the condition that you provide unnecessary personal data or consent to spying)
If you work in a tech field, there is simply no reason for such ignorance.
I do not think the value difference is $100 ;-) In fact, the longer you use it, the more money they can make off of you. (In that sense, that $200 is already WAY too expensive to start ;-) )
So yeah, reversing this would make the most sense. The default is: local data only and not connected. They need to pay me to get data.
Just like car companies, phones, etc, should be forced to do that as well.
And no, they shouldn't be allowed to set the price. If I buy a license from Steam, I can't name my price, so I don't see why these companies should either. If they want my data, then they'll either pay the money I demand or they won't get the data at all. Cutthroat, perhaps, but necessary.
It's not, things haven't gotten that much relatively cheaper (have you looked at phones? The biggest pieces of spyware you can buy?). This is a line corporations like to feed us so we feel guilty about being bad instead of putting that where it belongs: every CEO.
Tade0|3 months ago
I want to buy privacy, but it's not offered.
throwuxiytayq|3 months ago
godelski|3 months ago
I do wonder how many people would buy non-spy versions of devices given the option. More specifically, what that differential in price would be too. At worst it would be interesting to have a price explicitly stating what our data is worth. Many people actually internalize that it's not that valuable, but doing this would make it explicit.
smt88|3 months ago
Depending on the discount for the spyware version, I'd guess close to zero. The general public has become completely numb to being spied on. It's hard to get someone to give up $50 (a real cost) for something nebulous like "very slightly less of your life is known by marketing companies".
Eddy_Viscosity2|3 months ago
unknown|3 months ago
[deleted]
0xffff2|3 months ago
Likewise, there are a whole lot of products that don't have an "unsubsidized" version that I simply refuse to purchase (or have purchased and returned after confirming that they will not work when locked in IOT jail where they can't talk to the internet.)
ChrisMarshallNY|3 months ago
A couple of years ago, I subscribed to Peacock Premium (or whatever it was called). The selling point was access to all their library.
At that time, it was ad-free.
It is now packed with ads, and they want me to upgrade to “Peacock Squeal Like A Pig,” or whatever they call it.
Instead, I just canceled my subscription, and avoid any Peacock stuff, which isn’t difficult. They don’t have much I want to see.
I have a friend who pirates everything. I have always believed in paying for my media, but it’s become such a clusterfuck, that I can sympathize.
bragr|3 months ago
Didn't they already remove the option for a completely ad free prime video experience or am I hallucinating that? They have such a ridiculous hold on the e reader market I feel like it is just matter of the next down quarter.
LeafItAlone|3 months ago
Does the ad-free version not collect your data too?
philistine|3 months ago
immibis|3 months ago
GJim|3 months ago
If you work in a tech field, there is simply no reason for such ignorance.
devn0ll|3 months ago
So yeah, reversing this would make the most sense. The default is: local data only and not connected. They need to pay me to get data.
Just like car companies, phones, etc, should be forced to do that as well.
ethin|3 months ago
And no, they shouldn't be allowed to set the price. If I buy a license from Steam, I can't name my price, so I don't see why these companies should either. If they want my data, then they'll either pay the money I demand or they won't get the data at all. Cutthroat, perhaps, but necessary.
krageon|3 months ago
amelius|3 months ago
If you're buying a service and not a product, then the consumer has a right to know!