On the other hand: anything anti-consumer like this (like bricking game consoles) has potential to backfire in a myriad of ways when the inevitable exploits are found.
Ransomware customers, target people you don’t like (perhaps even by employees), or simply brick devices to cause returns and/or drive up customer support costs, or just cause a scandal to tarnish the brand itself (or force recalls/end of sales in places that actually have consumer protections). EDIT: Also imagine a dealership where no truck can even be driven off the lot, especially if they all need something like the computer to be fixed/replaced.
The closer to a real brick it is (rather than just a soft lockout), the more potential there is for disaster. Also it reinforces exactly the sentiment that’d cause people to look for said exploits.
But when the product/service is functionally mandated by the infrastructure (you need an internet connection to do everything from paying bills to applying for jobs / you need a car to survive in a society full of car-exclusive paved roads) and the commercial seller has a functional cartel/monopoly on production, the manufacturer has less and less reason to treat you as a potentially-loseable client and more as a potentially-saleable commodity.
Turning these high value durable goods into extensions of the lucrative police state surveillance network is appealing to a monopolized industry that’s heavily integrated with the domestic regime.
And if you, as a consumer, don’t like it… what are you going to do? Go without basic appliances? DIY retrofit everything in your house? Or just suck it up and toe the line, because this is “normal”?
On the other hand: anything anti-consumer like this (like bricking game consoles) has potential to backfire in a myriad of ways when the inevitable exploits are found.
Ransomware customers, target people you don’t like (perhaps even by employees), or simply brick devices to cause returns and/or drive up customer support costs, or just cause a scandal to tarnish the brand itself (or force recalls/end of sales in places that actually have consumer protections). EDIT: Also imagine a dealership where no truck can even be driven off the lot, especially if they all need something like the computer to be fixed/replaced.
The closer to a real brick it is (rather than just a soft lockout), the more potential there is for disaster. Also it reinforces exactly the sentiment that’d cause people to look for said exploits.
But when the product/service is functionally mandated by the infrastructure (you need an internet connection to do everything from paying bills to applying for jobs / you need a car to survive in a society full of car-exclusive paved roads) and the commercial seller has a functional cartel/monopoly on production, the manufacturer has less and less reason to treat you as a potentially-loseable client and more as a potentially-saleable commodity.
Turning these high value durable goods into extensions of the lucrative police state surveillance network is appealing to a monopolized industry that’s heavily integrated with the domestic regime.
And if you, as a consumer, don’t like it… what are you going to do? Go without basic appliances? DIY retrofit everything in your house? Or just suck it up and toe the line, because this is “normal”?