It’s crazy because if they allowed savvy users to cleanly opt out of everything, they’d still make a killing. Smart users who block ads and resist advertising and incentives have never really been a problem for companies. They aren’t being targeted for the most part, they just don’t want most people getting out of their web.
I also don’t fully blame the companies. Consumers not only allowed this, they actively campaigned for it. For every company that has tried to push privacy, the Internet/populace has pushed back. Those of us who care are having to lie in the bed made by the rest because those companies that promoted privacy are starting to learn they have to adapt or survive. 15 years ago we literally had a phone made by a computer company and a phone made by an advertising company, and the right one didn’t win… so now it’s just following the trends the consumers demanded.
App Tracking Transparency on iOS devices is an interesting test case for this argument. When an app wants to track you, you’re asked in plain language whether you want to be tracked. You can say no. You don’t have to be a savvy user to say no, and the consent is explicit rather than being buried in a EULA that you don’t read. If you say no, the app will likely still work fine. Specific numbers vary, but somewhere between a majority and a vast majority of iOS users opt out when given that choice. How much that costs advertisers is harder to reason about (a lot of the data comes from advertisers themselves, who are hardly unbiased), but the data are at least consistent in arguing that ATT opt outs produce a quantifiable drop in ad engagement (clicks, etc) and ad spend.
I’m personally a big fan of ATT. You shouldn’t have to be a savvy user to opt out of surveillance capitalism. I also don’t personally care that much about how effective online advertising networks are. But I think LG and similar companies are probably not off base to worry about making it possible to cleanly opt out of everything. From their perspective, that wouldn’t be a great outcome.
Its more than an opt in or out problem with LG.
You remember, oh a fukin month ago? LG installs spywear with no prompt when you plug in one of their monitors on a pc. This TV shit is more of the same and certainly more egregious than other brands.
You don’t fully blame the companies? Do you also not fully blame rapists because those women dress so provocatively. I suppose they demanded the rape because they picked the wrong “sexy” dress years ago. So now the rapes are just following the trends they demanded!
Really?
Do better.
That is exactly what I was telling you. Get a clue.
Holy shit this is deluded.
Another blame the victim monster.
At the time, Google was genuinely more trustworthy than Microsoft. I don’t know if you remember when Google had ‘do no evil’ as part of its mission statement, but it seemed like they actually made some token effort to follow that.
Microsoft, of course, is doing its best to make Windows as bad as Android in the spying-on-users front.
I remember the Internet years before Google was a thing, so, yes. I remember when Gmail came out with 1GB which was absolutely unprecedented. Yahoo was giving 100MB, which was considered more than enough, and was more than enough for most people. 1GB seemed impossible to fill.
Shortly after, people began complaining of Google using your own email to market stuff to you and they were accused of snooping. They said they didn’t, it was all automated, but we didn’t really know. Google just gave us a bunch of free shit and most people never questioned why. I remember they said “don’t be evil”, but I’m not sure they ever meant it.
Google has ever really only wanted your data. They’re a data broker. Search, Gmail, and Android all serve that end. Microsoft and Apple are computer companies. Apple makes the computer and the operating system. Microsoft just makes the software, but they also have the Surface line now. But their goal from the start has been every desk running Microsoft software, regardless of who makes the hardware.
Oh, I also remember when LG was called Zenith and TVs came in big wooden cabinets called consoles. That’s not actually 100% right. Zenith died out and LG bought the brand. I think Zenith was American or maybe Canadian, somewhere in North America, and LG was always Korean AFAIK. Like how Motorola was American (that, I do know) and Lenovo is Chinese, and Lenovo bought Motorola. Still, the legacy of Zenith TVs, for better or worse, resides in LG’s current legacy. A lot of people who used Zenith TVs use LG TVs and they don’t know the connection. You tell them, and they’re like “oh, that tracks.” They just followed quality, and LG has made some quality screens… spying issues with software notwithstanding.
I miss when TV was a vacuum tube and entertainment didn’t take up our entire lives.
KDE Plasma Bigscreen
This article whitewashed the whole thing and accepted LG’s angle, right up to reprinting their bullshit in full.
Such crap is entirely insufficient for a tech publication, “Tom’s Hardware has not independently verified either the claims made by Gamers Nexus in its documentary or LG’s counterclaims.”Why? Why did you publish and throw up your hands saying “we know nothing”?
Was there possibly some money involved? Don’t want to piss off your advertisers?
I reviewed this Stephen Warwick’s articles. He’s a corpo shill.
Miserable excuse for journalism.I mean, when you have LG ads plastered all over your site, who are you going to side with?
Don’t want to piss off your advertisers?
It’s just that.
Unfortunately tomshardware is not what it was 20+ years ago.
Tom sharded in his wares
If they had any leg to stand on, they’d be suing, not putting up a PR front.
I do agree with you, in that I think LG is full of shit and I’m giving money to GN to continue working on the story. It is likely that they’d want to do both PR and sue. The legal system takes time and LG wants to get out ahead of everyone disconnecting their TVs network so they can keep getting that sweet sweet data, which if they waited for a lawsuit to release a PR statement, they’d be missing out on.
They literally advertise the opposite to their advertising network, saying “we know everything that goes on in an LG living room”…
Of course they deny! 😂 - We are spying on you, and btw installing adware without you noticing on our monitors, without telling you… we know that could cause you to not trust us, but really, you have to trust us now. Your concerns aren’t true! (we don’t like to phrase it to straight forward, that could cause legal troubles for the thing we don’t do) 😆
The Gamers Nexus video is pretty convincing, and demonstrates the logs and activities they’re reporting. The LG response basically admits to half the things GN claimed, yet somehow LG says they’re lies. I guess it’ll work on people that only read headlines.
I’m a big headline only kinda guy when I’m just scrolling, but any time I see “corporation says” I know it’s the opposite.
Then prove it LG and remove the dark patterns from your consent opt-out
