General > General Technical Chat

Amazon accuses customer of racism & shuts down their smart home!

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MK14:

--- Quote from: PlainName on June 15, 2023, 11:15:26 pm ---Completely wrong analogy. The member has zero sway over the other member - the very worst they could do is ignore them. If you're intent on using that analogy then Amazon should push their complaint to the police or other responsible authority (which would be akin to the mods here) and let them deal with it.

--- End quote ---

I can accept, it wasn't the best choice of analogy.  Different peoples, interpretation of it, can vary.

Sometimes posts on here are misinterpreted, leading to complaints between users, which are really just caused by significant misunderstandings rather than intentional mayhem.

A simple misunderstanding, shouldn't lead to various items in a person or families home, to suddenly stop working.  So I can understand why so many people, are worried by this incident.

I wonder what would happen, if Amazon sold automated temperate controlled heating/radiator (control valves), for UK central heating (i.e. Like Google Nest) in the middle of Winter.  Then suddenly disabled that system, because of a similar misunderstanding.  If it was a vulnerable person and/or someone who is so technically limited, that they wouldn't know how to quickly fix the situation and get their heating system back on.  That would be bad, and possibly even dangerous, for certain very vulnerable groups.

james_s:
The thing about this is when people buy these gadgets nobody expects them to get shut down without warning over a misunderstanding prior to any investigation to determine guilt taking place. While it may be in the TOS that nobody reads that they're able to do this, nobody would buy the devices if they thought it would actually happen so people are going to feel ripped off if it does.

PlainName:

--- Quote from: MK14 ---Sometimes posts on here are misinterpreted
--- End quote ---

No kidding!

And on reflection I should have written 'inappropriate' instead of 'completely wrong'.

MK14:

--- Quote from: james_s on June 16, 2023, 03:59:18 am ---The thing about this is when people buy these gadgets nobody expects them to get shut down without warning over a misunderstanding prior to any investigation to determine guilt taking place. While it may be in the TOS that nobody reads that they're able to do this, nobody would buy the devices if they thought it would actually happen so people are going to feel ripped off if it does.

--- End quote ---

There are LOTS of things, over many decades (and probably much, much longer), that sooner or later, have to be taken out of usage, because the manufacturer has decided to drop support for the thing.  I think we just have learnt to quietly accept these things.

Games consoles, that when they reach a certain age and/or the new version comes out, the company(s), stop producing games for the older consoles and at some point tend to even stop its abilities to play online with other people.

Gadgets, which need online access in some cases, where the company goes bankrupt so the services stop.  E.g. The Pebble Smartwatch.

TiVo (and probably others).  Whereby their paid for, 'lifetime' subscription (if you paid quite a lot of money for it, something like $175 .. $200).  Ran out, too soon for a number of people, with the company being taken over, I think.

Cars, which can cost a lot of money.  Then the car company can go bankrupt and/or disappear.  Making used sales values drop like a rock and the spare parts situation and dealer support network (for servicing, repairs and spare parts), disappear, possibly overnight.
E.g. Rover in the UK (technically speaking they got taken over, by various entities.  But the slightly older cars were somewhat abandoned, as a result).
Or Saab etc.

Google seem to be happy to do various projects, which lots of people can use.  Then suddenly announce, the fairly imminent closure of such services, in the coming future.  Even for paid services.

Don't get me started about Microsoft Windows, declaring various versions of their OS, as no longer being supported and/or refusing to support, even very modern/recent CPUs, in their latest windows products (win 11).

Apple seem to do similar, where slightly older products, refuse to load recent versions of their OS.

It is annoying that many products can be kept/used and will electronically be working just great, for perhaps 10 years.  Yet the manufacturers may stop updating the software and/or even stop the services for that device, after just 3 years.  E.g. Google Android specific versions, only updated for a limited time (or so I heard).

Even the modern trend of games being digital downloads, makes one wonder what happens if you want to play that game, in perhaps 5 or 10 years time, will it be possible?

On the other hand.  TV and radio transmission standards, can change over the years.  So eventually, various older standards, can get switched off, to allow better use of the available (RF) bandwidth.

E.g. In the UK, various older TV standards have been switched off.  Such as black and white analogue 405 line transmissions, teletext, and much later 625 line analogue transmissions, and there has at least been talk of the older AM/FM radio signals being switched off (rumours rather than actual cut-off dates), due to DAB/DAB+ and later standards, existing.

I suppose 'analogue' internet phone connections got switched off, but was probably done at a time when almost everyone had moved over to broadband/ADSL anyway, so went unnoticed.

Sooner or later, supplies of Petrol/Gasoline, may either be switched-off, or it may be a nightmare to find a refilling station, vaguely near-by.  My guess would be, perhaps 10 years, after electric vehicles become mandatory (for new sales), they may start disallowing or controlling car fuel sales.

Anyway, who would create/open a brand new site for being a Petrol/Gasoline station, these days.  With their closure and/or getting fewer and fewer customers, getting ever closer.  Unless they shift the various countrywide ban on ICE (Petrol/Gasoline/Diesel) car sales, in the not too distant future, depending on which country you live in.

I try and avoid cloud services (even if free), like the plague (with some exceptions), because of privacy concerns and the service(s) suddenly being switched off (plus expensive subscriptions, adding up over a period of time).  I suppose this forum, sort of counts as one.  But if it disappeared, there would be alternatives and it wouldn't break (stop) any services I get.

tggzzz:

--- Quote from: MK14 on June 16, 2023, 11:02:58 am ---There are LOTS of things, over many decades (and probably much, much longer), that sooner or later, have to be taken out of usage, because the manufacturer has decided to drop support for the thing.  I think we just have learnt to quietly accept these things.

--- End quote ---

True, but not relevant to this case. This is about someone being incorrectly singled out for "item insertion".

Having said that, I wonder how long it will be before the whole "cloud control of my home" becomes discredited by such antics. Or, for that matter, people upgrade their "how does this work" mindset to the engineering ""how does this fail" mindset.



--- Quote ---Don't get me started about Microsoft Windows, declaring various versions of their OS, as no longer being supported and/or refusing to support, even very modern/recent CPUs, in their latest windows products (win 11).

--- End quote ---

The canonical example of that is MicroSoft PlaysForSure [sic].

OTOH, there are apparently Win3 (and later) dialog boxes still lurking in the latest Windoze. Something to do with ODBC config, IIRC :)

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