
Your landlord turns your apartment into a smart home. Now what? - howard941
https://www.cnet.com/news/your-landlord-turns-your-apartment-into-a-smart-home-now-what/
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Nextgrid
> Chief Technology Officer Jeremy Warren said in a statement that it allows
> customers to opt out of marketing.

I don’t understand why this shit should exist at all. If you’re a smart home
company your objective is to serve the client (the property manager) who in
turn wants the technology to benefit the homeowner. Why is “marketing” even
involved?

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jakeogh
Because the user is the product. It's a data mining operation wrapped in a
deceptive package.

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Nextgrid
We should have regulation to prevent that. There’s nothing wrong with ad-
sponsored products but they should be clearly labelled as such. As it stands
this is fraud.

~~~
jakeogh
I sincerely disagree. To see why, try writing down a proposed law. One will
quickly find it's the new "cookie warning" (thanks EU!).

Consider the proposed "ad-sponsored" label that is required to be on the
product. Say you want to sell a product, initially you promise to keep your
users data and not sell it, therefore you sell your product legally (in the
jurstiction with this new law) without the "ad-sponsored" label.

Later on, you are not doing well financially, and that database is worth
money. Company B makes an offer to buy your company.

Is company B bound by your past actions? Nope, nor can they be; that's how
mistakes get fixed. You could have instead created a contract with each of
your clients, but you didnt. If you had, the client would have the ability to
control you, and you may not even be able to sell your company, or it might
not be worth anything due to the N contracts involved.

Then consider the pointless regulatary enforcement system required. How would
one even approach that? Forced registration of every company that happens to
get some customer data? It's a endless cycle, that creates no value, and costs
the taxpayers money.

A law requiring some specific action is almost always the wrong reaction.

The only general solution compatiable with a free society is for people to
become aware of the value of their data and who they hand it to.

In this specific case, property rights should fix it. Either you get to break
your contract because the owner breaches it by installing a camera in your
livingroom, or do it from the renters rights side. Best left up to the states
so you get a market of ideas.

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JohnFen
As things currently are, I think the only realistic option in that scenario is
to find another place to live.

