

HTC sends Fantastic Four push notification ad - geekscribe
http://geekscribe.com.au/blog/2015/8/5/htc-serves-fantastic-four-push-notification-ad

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JohnTHaller
Behavior like this is why my Galaxy S4 was my first and last Samsung phone.
They had a pre-installed "Beaming Service" that couldn't be disabled that
would randomly show notification ads for unrelated software... at 3am waking
me up on a work night. "Oh but Samsung has gotten so much better now"... Yeah,
not going down that route again. I don't understand how a company like HTC or
Samsung would think something like this was OK and not permanently lose them a
paying customer.

~~~
RKearney
> randomly show notification ads for unrelated software... at 3am waking me up
> on a work night.

Sort of unrelated, but this reminded me of a time way back when. Back when AOL
Instant Messenger was still widely used. I was awoken by a buzzing sound. I
had 5.1 surround sound speakers at the time on my PC and this buzzing was
going all over my room.

Being 2-4AM on a school night, I'm tiredly trying to figure out what in the
world is making this noise.

Took me a bit, but I powered up my CRT monitor to find a "swat the fly with
this flyswatter and win!" advertisement inside of AIM.

It was from that point on that I made a conscious effort to eradicate all
advertisements from any applications I use.

~~~
freehunter
I did the same thing for a similar reason. For years now I've refused to use
any ad-supported software that I didn't absolutely have to use. I pay money
for whatever I use, but unfortunately sometimes the companies I pay still put
ads into their product. I was a subscriber to the NYT online for far longer
than I should have been, paying $15/mo to still see ads on their site and app.
I paid for Hulu Plus for one month and canceled when I realized even when you
pay you still see ads.

"We only have good/relevant ads!" I don't care. I might trust you, but I still
don't want to see your ads. Let me pay you to get rid of them. If you don't do
that, I'll use an ad blocker.

"But that's stealing content!" No it's not. You gave it to me whether I saw
the ad or not. In the US, where I live, dollars are legal tender for any debt
public or private. If I owe you a debt, either accept cash or block me. If I
go to a free concert sponsored by Bud Light, you can't force me to drink your
beer.

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aesthetics1
My Samsung Smart TV started doing this recently. A small banner ad scrolls
across the top of it telling me about some new app that I should download
(presumably on the TV's app store?).

It seems to me that once a product (TVs, smart phones, tablets, etc) becomes a
commodity, the business model is to _immediately_ stop focusing on creating
well-built products that sell themselves, and start focusing on your new
product -- the _user_.

~~~
jgrowl
Samsung's TV popups drove me crazy. I ended up just completely disconnecting
it from the internet. I would like to use a couple of the built in apps but it
just isn't worth it.

~~~
bentcorner
Same thing here. I was seeing a pop-up for a service that was going to be
discontinued. Thanks Samsung, I really needed to know that.

I was also seeing "smart ads" when it detected some out-of-band signal for ads
I was seeing in Hulu. It would pop up some UI on top of the display that would
let you "learn more". Thanks again Samsung for enriching my experience.

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cs702
Apparently, from _their_ perspective, it's OK to cross that line:

* It's not your notification area; it's theirs -- they control what shows up on it.

* It's not your operating system; it's theirs -- they control what it does.

* It's your not phone; it's theirs -- they control what you can do with it.

It could get worse. I imagine it's only a matter of time before we start
getting ads inserted _within_ our personal messages (e.g., "click here to read
the rest of your mom's email"), or asked to click through ads to change phone
settings like display brightness, or even forced to see ads before we can use
the phone to make non-emergency phone calls. _Their_ imagination is the limit!

\--

Edits: added e.g. in parenthesis to clarify what I meant.

~~~
pavel_lishin
> _I imagine it 's only a matter of time before we start getting ads inserted
> within our personal emails_

I remember when just about every free e-mail provider did this in the 90s.

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josephmx
I still see this today

Sent from my iPhone!

~~~
delecti
That's not just an advertisement.

I always make sure to have an email signature on my phone that lets people
know I'm on a phone. Specifically it says "Sent from my phone, excuse any
brevity or typos."

Sending a response from your phone should carry different expectations, so I
consider "Sent from my iPhone" to be entirely forgivable.

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samcheng
Apple isn't immune to this either! Every once in a while, U2 starts playing on
my phone inadvertently. I didn't ask for that music, thanks.

How is this behavior acceptable? Didn't Tim Cook tell us that Apple was the
one tech company that won't sell-out its users?

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matthewmacleod
Look, the U2 album thing was a stupid move, IMO. But it seems like a totally
different class of offensive; 'We sent you an unsolicited free album!' versus
'We're sending you unsolicited advertisements!'.

And you can of course delete that free album if you don't want it. That'll
solve your inadvertent playing problem.

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izacus
OS X Mavericks will also constantly nag you with notification to upgrade to
broken Yosemite.

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matthewmacleod
Yosemite doesn't seem broken. That aside, you are being deliberately
disingenuous by comparing a software update notification to unsolicited
advertising.

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kmicklas
Google needs to do something about the general load of crap that comes on most
Android phones. I just switched from a Nexus 4 to a Galaxy S5, and even
considering the massive jump in hardware specs I am consistently less
satisfied with my phone-using experience. I don't want to have to install a
custom ROM and lose stability and camera performance just to avoid being
bombarded with Samsung and AT&T crap every 10 minutes.

~~~
mkozlows
Google doesn't need to do anything about it; buyers need to factor it in when
they buy phones. Some people don't care, other people care a lot, and it's
possible some people even like TouchWiz(tm) and its ilk.

But yeah, that's why carrier-unlocked Motorolas and Nexuses are pretty much
the only phones I'd consider at this point.

~~~
murbard2
...and some people have no clue whatsoever and will form an indelible
impression of what Android is like based on the experience they have with
whatever phone the store salesman recommended.

~~~
dcchambers
It's the same reason many people come to hate Windows and switch to the "pure,
friendly, easy" OSX. They buy whatever laptop was recommended to them at Best
Buy and have to deal with all of that preinstalled malware that makes the
machine a piece of junk. Very few consumers ever get to work with "plain"
Windows without all the junk the OEMs put on it.

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matthewmacleod
I hate every aspect of this. I don't even own an HTC phone and I feel rage.

What consistently gets me about this sort of thing is the corporate-speak that
the apologies are inevitably wrapped up in – like HTC is doing users an
awesome service by piping adverts directly to their phone. I don't get how
someone could ever consider this a feature that a user could possibly want.

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Macha
[https://m.reddit.com/r/htc/comments/2p3bso/heads_up_to_anyon...](https://m.reddit.com/r/htc/comments/2p3bso/heads_up_to_anyone_that_has_the_htc_gallery_app/)

Previous bad behaviour from HTC (pushed an update to their app that
automatically uploaded photos somewhere)

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grownseed
My phone provider (Fido, Canada) used to call me weekly to try and sell me
random crap. Every single time, I would complain that I find being cold-called
by a service I already pay for extremely rude. "But Sir, we're trying to offer
you the best service possible, in no way is this rude". It took the threat of
legal action to get them to stop...

Shaw TV inserts ads taking up about a third of the screen real estate when
browsing channels. When asked, I was told this was for my benefit and there
was no way to disable it. Again, shoving ads in your face even though you're
already a paying customer. I'm cancelling my TV subscription again (I pretty
much never use it anyway).

When going to the movies, all the major movie theatres will practically coerce
people into turning up early for the official showtime ("get a good seat while
you can!"), then proceed to show nearly 30 minutes of advertising (after
having paid $15 for my seat...). I now go to independent movie theatres
whenever I can.

I recently bought a wireless HP printer for which the software is absymally
bad. After installing it (twice), I proceeded to disable all the "cloud"
options (this has to be done on both the PC AND the printer itself...).
Throughout the installation, it keeps marking options as "recommended", such
as having to register your personal details on their website. Any non-savvy
user would easily fall for this. I missed one option (I don't even recall
whether it was actually available) and ended up with a bunch of icons on my
desktop for offers, as well as a huge icon in the taskbar displaying popups
every so often for "special offers". I complained to HP, haven't heard
anything yet (and doubt I ever will).

Unfortunately, I have many more examples such as these... But to address the
point made by the author:

> Let's hope this isn't a sign of things to come.

It is already happening, and in full force. How this sort of behavior is even
legally tolerated is beyond me.

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bentcorner
HTC's approach to adding these is IMO backwards. They should have implemented
opt-out before rolling these things out:

> _We will be implementing a way for you to opt out of receiving these
> promotions, but we hope that displaying native and limited promotions in
> this way will help you discover new and useful apps and /or products and
> services._

[http://www.droid-life.com/2015/06/16/htc-device-owners-
prepa...](http://www.droid-life.com/2015/06/16/htc-device-owners-prepare-to-
see-promotions-in-blinkfeed/)

~~~
fuzzywalrus
You can at least switch to another launcher to disable blinkfeed but I'm
guessing its out of the frying pan into the oven with many of these:

[http://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-get-rid-of-blinkfeed-on-
yo...](http://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-get-rid-of-blinkfeed-on-your-htc-
one/)

~~~
nolok
> This ad was pushed to my phone despite my use of a custom launcher.

From the first message in the reddit thread

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AdmiralAsshat
Any word if this is Sense-driven and if it will be avoided if you use an
alternative launcher? My instinct says yes, since it's supposed to be Sense
that HTC was rolling out ads to, although the fact that it showed up in the
Notification bar makes me wonder if it bypasses the launcher altogether.

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saturdaysaint
With Android phones turning into commodity hardware, is there any other road?
Have PC makers figured out how to make money without crapware?

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Grue3
I did not get this on my HTC One M7. Still one of the best phones ever.

