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The days of simply purchasing a product or vehicle, owning it and using all of its features are coming to an end. 

Smart device tech is not just about increased convenience and expanded services. This innovation is specifically designed to exploit you. 

If a purchased device has any individual features that can be isolated from its core function they will be monetized by a paywall subscription, which is governed by the manufacturer, who will also capture, store, and monetize all your device interactions.

The subscription economy is expected to grow from $650 billion in 2020 to $1.5 trillion in 2025. 

This shift is not a result of customer aspirations or convenience, it comes from monumental changes in the way global industry functions. Manufacturers previously had the dual revenue streams of unit sales and parts/service (which can be double to 10 times higher than unit sales).

Manufacturing advances and integration, along with microtechnology have significantly increased unit sale profitability but they have also made unit repair almost impossible. So the entire aftermarket parts/service revenue stream has effectively been hoisted on its own profit petard.

One way industry has mitigated this lost revenue is by a reduced product lifespan, from five to 10 years (of parts and service revenue) to only one to three years.

Subscription innovation has further mitigated this lost aftermarket revenue, but this is increasingly being used to just increase profits, not mitigate losses. 

Imagine a sofa that requires a monthly fee for the footrest option. A toaster that has a paywall-locked dark/light selector, or a refrigerator with a butter warmer subscription. It’s coming soon. Not because customers are asking for the service, but because industry demands the increased revenues as well as the valuable user data collection.

Auto manufactures, home products, and appliances are already using the subscription model to increase profits and collect user data. 

Health insurance companies have also been using this model with medical devices to increase profits by cutting off coverage. 

And let’s not get into forced multiunit sales, device advertising, and the handshake threat.

The invaluable mass harvesting of user data points is also used to increase profits. But this covert mass data collection has become a serious threat to individual data privacy. Check here for your rights on the data collected about you. 

The enormous profits generated by subscription paywalls and disposable/nonrepairable innovations not only overshadow the threat to individual privacy but they have also facilitated a waste culture that threatens societal stability — and even life itself.

On the smart device/AI side of this problem: The Office of Management and Budget has outlined some issues, Congress has pending legislation, and the Senate created a road map. But the federal agencies tasked with regulation — the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) — have no unified plan for this quickly expanding problem.

Consumer backlash against subscriptions is growing. Thirty states are considering Right to Repair legislation so far in 2024. There are also 25 states with some electronics recycling laws. But all these are only stop gap measures at best. 

Celebrating New Protections Taking Effect in 2024

From The Public Interest Network: “If there’s one thing better than winning the passage of a new law, it’s seeing the new law begin to improve the quality of people’s lives and our environment.” 

Why Do We Need To Repair or Fix Items More?

The author writes, “The existence of repair and repair centers in local communities is important, as the repair of used items extends the useful life of items that would otherwise end up as waste. They help to protect the environment by promoting sustainable development and the principles of the circular economy. Repair and overhaul centers are small shop entities that repair, overhaul, refurbish and maintain items. By using repair centers we reduce the volume of municipal solid waste, protect the environment, save resources and raw materials, encourage reuse and create new jobs in the repair and maintenance sector.”

How the Right To Repair Might Change Technology

From the BBC: “Surera Ward has been running Girls Fix It, a tech repair service near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for around four years. In that time, she and her team have got better at understanding the electronic devices that come into their workshop. But fixing them hasn’t. ‘It’s getting harder and harder to repair different devices,’ she says. It’s not just getting access to important bits of equipment that Ward finds difficult — often relying on importing specialized tools from China to help her and her staff work. Once her team has conducted a repair on a customers’ phone, for example, the device will often throw up error messages hard coded in by manufacturers to discourage users from going to third-party experts.”

America’s Advanced Manufacturing Problem — and How to Fix It

From American Affairs Journal: “Can the United States still make things domestically? What if America lacks capabilities for advanced manufacturing which the most recent round of industrial policies have not fully addressed? These go beyond the lack of resilient supply chains, or the unsurprising fact that a country which has aggressively deindustrialized during the last several decades currently lacks a work­force with skills in advanced manufacturing. What if there are more profound weaknesses inhibiting advanced manufacturing in the United States, as is indicated by the trade deficit in advanced technology products?”

The Tricky Truth About How Generative AI Uses Your Data

The author writes, “There are many concerns about the potential harm that sophisticated generative AI systems have unleashed on the public. What they do with our data is one of them. We know very little about where these models get the petabytes of data they need, how that data is being used, and what protections, if any, are in place when it comes to sensitive information. The companies that make these systems aren’t telling us much, and may not even know themselves.”

5 Surprisingly Hackable Items in Your Home — And What You Can Do To Make Them Safer

From the World Economic Forum: “How good is your home security? Locks and alarms may keep burglars at bay, but as smart homes become more common, you need to add cybersecurity to the list of deterrents. With our homes ever more connected, the opportunities for hackers to interfere with our lives and cause harm is increasing. ‘If everything is connected, everything can be hacked,’ pointed out European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in her 2021 State of the Union address. So which household items are most vulnerable? Here are five surprisingly hackable items that you may have in your home.”

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