Whenever I see shitlib types complain about this I always kind of chuckle since the answer to "why does my washing machine or treadmill need an app and Internet connection and a bunch of sensors that don't work" is, without fail "because Obama made it illegal for them not to"
@shortstoriesIt's not a law, it's regulations, Obama mandated that all consumer electrically powered technology be "green" and "energy saving" and most companies at the time decided to use that as an excuse to connect it all to the cloud to "monitor energy use" and what have you. Since it all coincided with silicon valley's "Big Data" push at the time.
@shortstoriesSmart Thermostats are designed only so the government can turn your thermostat off in the summer so you can die of heatstroke so some immigrants in section 8 can be nice and cool, or so an AI data center can get more power. Smart Appliances are so they can do the same thing with your refrigerator or oven or whatever. "You can only heat your dinner at low heat since ChatGPT needs another 50 gigawatts of power to process an AI generated video of a cat chopping vegetables"
@Shadowman311@wizardmanperson@shortstoriesI laugh when people get smart thermostats to save money. Thermostat is a switch as dumb as a light switch and can turn shit on or off, no inbetween.