[JohnBooty]

    Yet another example of the customer coming last. 

Unfortunately, it's worse than that. It's more like a case of the consumer coming first.

The vast majority of consumers don't care about this. They're trying to get the biggest screen for the least money. And TV manufacturers are giving it to them.

However, to remain price competitive with the other TVs on the shelf in WalMart, they need to rely on ad revenue. So, we get TVs with ads.

This isn't a dystopian thing forced upon us by evil TV manufacturers. This is a dystopian thing we've asked for.

[obscura]

> The vast majority of consumers don't care about this.

You may be right, but how exactly is someone meant to make an informed decision when they don't know what their TV is doing? It's unreasonable to expect the average person on the street to be an expert on the subject and to have fully researched everything before walking into a store, so if the TV's packaging doesn't say anything about the subject, how do they learn?

> However, to remain price competitive with the other TVs on the shelf in WalMart, they need to rely on ad revenue.

Which other TVs are you referring to? And is this really the case or are you speculating? Surely a company the size of Samsung can be competitive without having to resort to this sort of activity?

[JohnBooty]

    It's unreasonable to expect the average person 
    on the street to be an expert on the subject and 
    to have fully researched everything before walking 
    into a store, so if the TV's packaging doesn't say 
    anything about the subject, how do they learn?

I 100% agree with you that the current solution stinks and is unfair.

The solution depends on who you ask.

Some would say that it's up to the consumer to be educated. Like you, I don't think this is realistic. It's not realistic to expect every consumer to become an expert in the nuances of every single thing they might buy.

Others would say that if it's really important to customers, we'll vote with our dollars and demand alternatives to the current situation.

Some would say that the government should ban the practice or at least require some sort of very clear disclosure.

What would you like to see?

[tolbish]

Not really. We are asking for TVs without internet access, but the market has decided for us.

[JohnBooty]

"We" are a tiny minority.

The vast majority of people just don't care and want the most TV for the least money.

It's a "tyranny of the majority" kind of situation. For TV manufacturers, it's not worth catering to the tiny minority of customers who think like us.

[tolbish]

How do you know that? I am going to go out on a limb here and say you have not done background research on TV manufacturers who focus exclusively on inexpensive dumb TVs, so how can you know it's not worth it to them?

It is entirely possible there are other factors as to why we are not buying from them right now, such as supplier-related issues unbeknownst to us.

In short, the economy is more complex than claiming "demand" and saying we are done.

[JohnBooty]

I have almost never heard anybody outside of the tech world express concern about this sort of data collection, and even most tech-savvy people I know explicitly reject the idea of caring about it.

Yes, admittedly this is anecdotal, but I am talking about an extended family/social circle of hundreds of people over the course of quite a few years. The odds of it being a massively unrepresentative sample are rather low.

Let's turn it around. How do you know that people are concerned about data collection?

All available evidence points to my assertion being correct. All sorts of "smart" devices, chock full of phone-home tracking, are flying off the shelves. There are alternatives, but they are quite niche.

[tolbish]

I am not talking about the demand for privacy, I am talking about the demand for dumb, inexpensive TVs. You are saying it is impossible to find a market that needs dumb, inexpensive TVs. But suppose all of those people saw an option for a cheaper TV that happened to be dumb. This line could even be sold by a major brand. Call it something like a "SimplySmart" line.

[JohnBooty]

Ah, I see the misunderstanding.

The "smart" functionality is how they achieve low prices. They subsidize the cost of the TV by selling your usage data. They may have deals with app providers as well - similar to how the price of a consumer laptop is subsidized by preloaded crapware.