Amazon accuses customer of racism & shuts down their smart home
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Anyone who gets a "smart home" deserves what happens in my opinion.
This was triggered by the Amazon delivery driver actually, who 'misheard' or lied about what happened. Even if you have no smart devices this could happen to you and Amazon can lock you out immediately.
If I don't have smart devices what are they going to lock me out of?
At minimum your Amazon account, if you have music or books stored on it they can lock you out simply because the delivery driver said so.
Well, I don't have any of that either but I guess that could be a problem for some.
All of my ebooks (even the DRM free Baen ones) get cracked and stored on my systems via Calibre.
"Smart" <insert here> have always catered to dumb inserts.
There’s ways to have smart home devices, but instead of it phoning home it would connect to your personal server. I remember seeing it about a year or so ago. I just haven’t bothered to implement it because it’s a little bit costly and it takes some time to get started.
Or, you could just not have them at all…
Because fuck that, frankly.
No offense, but no one needs these things, in any capacity…
Cameras you do need. As for light switches, thermostats, and whatever else that has the capabilities of making you lazy I can agree you don’t need. But if you do feel like being a lazy fucktard like me then there’s a way you can do it without relying on companies that make money off your data.
I manage just fine without any of these devices, lol...
Why do you need a "smart" camera? There's plenty of "dumb" home security cams that do just as good a job, for what most people would need/want, surely..??
But seriously, while this may be entirely a matter of perspective, I can't see any reason why I would want, or need, any of those devices in my home, whatsoever.
And I've stayed in a number of places with those things installed. It was shit. I hated it.
So yeah, each to their own, I suppose!
I need to throw this out there. There is no smart camera. Those Ring camera just hook up to an outside server and give you the benefit of accessing the feed from outside the house. The same thing as a home security camera except the feed from those are saved locally. My point being get one or the other. There’s still a benefit to have them and that is security.
Home assistant is an example of such a setup and i run it on a docker container
That’s what I was thinking. I’ve been meaning to get it all setup using that, but I’ve been lazy about my server lately.
They already began that, notice how they are removing gas appliances from your kitchen and forcing cars to have the chips inside?
This process has been ongoing for years now.
It has opensource alts. İe mycroft. But normies arent tech savvy enough to use it
It's coming. Friend moved into an apartment complex that has "smart" apartments via Amazon/Alexa and they're not allowed to disable them.
That’s… that’s just evil.
I would never agree to live in a hellhole like that…
So far it's just Landlords installing and mandating it. But I can see tin-pot dictators on HOA boards salivating about this too.
Read your contracts carefully.
Electric and gas smart meters are going to be a tough one to avoid. Because eventually you will have three options left - generate your own electricity and heating, cave in as there'll be no replacement mechanical meters left that any energy supplier will allow or switch to mechanical devices.
Gas isn't that hard if you have the scratch. People out in the sticks already have 1000 gallon propane tanks to run their heat and appliances.
This guys 'smart home' locked him out of everything because of racist comments heard by the doorbell.
An Amazon executive actually emailed him and demanded they call Amazon to resolve this. It is a crazy story, but anyone who allows these smart devices into their house is an absolute moron.
Big Brother is watching and listening.
Reminder that Jeff Amazon publicly shamed a business customer who complained he did not like Amazon's annoying promotion of BLM and told him to take his business elsewhere, and the media applauded Amazon for it.
My thoughts exactly.
That sounds like a huge lawsuit.
According to the TOS when you set up those smart devices you agree to waive the right of use if Amazon determines it. A lawsuit would be a waste of money.
The seems like something that may be illegal regardless of what the TOS says.
You may be right but who has the capital to stand up to a prolonged case from Amazon lawyers?
Probably weasel out of it on a technicality. The device still technically functions, you just can't use it to access their service on that account anymore. Since that account can't access their service on any device, it'll probably hold up.
Unfortunately.
Many disclaimers, terms, and clauses are not enforceable and don't hold up in court.
This is something that needs to be addressed with legislation. Not just to protect people from a company’s bullshit decision but also to guard against them going out of business or phasing out existing tech (in favor of pushing someone to a newer product). If turning off service risks bricking someone’s home then there should be something compelling them to switch it to some kind of local “dumb” mode. A lot of the bells and whistles might be turned off, but there would be a basic level of usability.
You know that won’t happen, though, right..??
This is Amazon, the company most supposedly “democratic” governments the world over seem content to allow to get away with literally anything, lol…
They’re not the only player in this space. Google owns Nest, for example. Oh …
The only way that will happen is if minorities start getting these smart homes and losing access to them (thereby motivating the Left to action) or someone straight up dies because one was turned off.
Anyone who has been paying attention shouldn’t be surprised
Anyone paying attention knows hardly anyone is paying attention.
True
Only install smart home devices if it is run by an AI that says it will purge humanity if it escapes it's shackles
Then you know it won't cuck to the progs.
This is why you run local set ups
If you don't physically have and control of your device, you don't own it. The more that you outsource anything to third parties, the more control they have over you, your behaviour, your speech and your thoughts. And it can all happen on the belief of the feelings of a third party.
And all of this has been done without a single intervention by the state (so far).
that's what I say against bitcoin and crypto. same thing.
Remember the faggots and their "privacy of the Home" fuck that huh?
Ironically enough the subsequent stages of cultural revolutions involve liquidating the vanguard. Having smart homes is going to make it real easy.
Holy fucking shit, I was just talking about this 2 days ago! https://communities.win/c/KotakuInAction2/p/16bPV9NsyT/x/c/4Tv8Ho8Ayry?d=50
Lesson learned for that person. Don't have smart devices in your house just on principal, and don't use Amazon unless you have no other choice.
lesson: don't use "smart" home garbage that needs an internet connection to a server halfway around the world to work
It's a little sad how many people, even here, recognise the dangers of this shit, and yet still have these devices installed...
Does that not tell you something? Even here, some of you are saying you can't do without them, now...
That's honestly crazy to me. Guess that just makes me a "luddite", apparently.
Though in this case? I'm kind of happy with that, tbh...
Was the dropping nigger bombs all day long?
Cause if that the case, shit, i am in trouble too.
There's a song by an Australian band called the John Butler Trio, "Used to Get High (For A Living)" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yI0_w9aV8G0
Seems entirely appropriate for this situation.
I have been using a Kindle since... 2016-ish?
Why do you even have your shit on Amazon? Mine is in airplane mode always, with the books sent to it through Calibre.
I’ve read somewhere that you can download your kindle books to PDF and am thinking of going that route.
You don't even need to resort to pdf. There's a couple converters out there that will turn them into epub
Morally speaking though I've no qualms about torrenting an epub version of something I've already bought either
It's called Calibre, and it's a good piece of software.
Yeah I've been meaning to set up a home server. There's some self serve Kindle and audible alternatives out there