[fullshark]

They care but not enough for "the free market" to generate an ad free competitor that can be trusted to never show ads for the lifetime of the product. Especially because they'd have to charge more for that product.

Government regulation is the only way to stop this.

[AnimalMuppet]

I've got a fridge that I trust to not show ads for the lifetime of the product, because it doesn't have a screen like that. It's pretty new, too, and fairly nice.

So such competitors exist. I can't imagine that they will cease to exist.

[slowmovintarget]

I've been thinking the same. Our GE fridge is just... a refrigerator/freezer. No screen, no internet connection. We went looking for that.

Our Miele dishwasher... no internet connection.

Our GE range / stove wants an internet connection and a phone app to use it's broiler features (I think). They're actually gated behind internet connectivity. We do without it.

Our home thermostat was installed with wi-fi everything... Which we promptly disconnected when the installers left. The same for the irrigation system. We want to use the device to control it, not have to connect to some server on the internet to manage our heat, A/C, or watering schedule.

Don't get me started on looking for "dumb phones" for our child.

[Jensson]

> an ad free competitor that can be trusted to never show ads for the lifetime of the product

There is no such thing, every big corporation adds greedier and greedier practices over time.