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Schizophrenia sufferer mistakes smart fridge ad for psychotic episode

543 points by hliyan 10mo ago

firoso 10mo ago
[flagged]
- onetokeoverthe 10mo ago
  [dead]
ifh-hn 10mo ago
An edge case of "smart" tech... As an aside, having scroll that thread, Reddit is a shambles. There's more deleted comments and related justification comment than actual comments. Make for a jarring experience.
- OhioMan2943 10mo ago
  Absolutely- I can't understand why it still has such a loyal base considering how low the quality is- I see more insightful discussion on facebook half the time
  - danielbln 10mo ago
    Because Reddit != Reddit and each subreddit has their own audience and moderation style. Most of Reddit might be a cesspit, but that doesn't mean all of it is.
  - globular-toast 10mo ago
    I can't understand why cigarettes have such a loyal fanbase. They're smelly and expensive. Costing roughly 4k a year, I can't understand why someone wouldn't buy a nicer car or massive TV or something. Whenever a platform is popular these days I just assume it is more addictive.
    - mlrtime 10mo ago
      Well op is comparing one cigarette to another, expanding your metaphors. And they're both "free".
      - dotancohen 10mo ago
        Free, sure, if your privacy has no value.
    - OhioMan2943 10mo ago
      It's a long long, sad fall from when websites used to be popular primarily because they were insightful, cool or creative
    - account42 10mo ago
      Which is very on topic because being addictive is all that's needed to succeed in the ad-funded world.
- brendoelfrendo 10mo ago
  It's a legal advice subreddit; they tend to have stricter moderation because their primary goal is to get the OP an answer to their question or advice on how to consult a legal professional about their issue. Posts like the one linked here tend to be a magnet for people more interested in the drama than the actual legal principles, so they end up being a wasteland of removed comments.
  - mcv 10mo ago
    Exactly. There are reasons for those many deleted comments. It's specific to this subreddit for very good reasons and not something you can use to disparage all of reddit. Many subreddits have their own rules and culture.
    - ifh-hn 10mo ago
      It's not disparaging to point out a fact. The whole delete comment content but keep the comment and then add a reply comment with wordy reason for deletion of comment content is a shambles. And irrespective of whether it's on every subreddit or not, doesn't make it less so. It's basically just spam at this point. My solution would be to simply delete the comment and PM the OP. If another user had already replied, replace the original content with a *short* reason for deletion, and PM the OP, leaving the replies in place unless they needed deleting.
      - brendoelfrendo 10mo ago
        It's a recursive issue, and this is something that Reddit could potentially improve. Reddit preserves a deleted comment's space in the comments section as [deleted]. Users who see a graveyard of deleted comments will comment to wonder why, especially if they are unfamiliar with the subreddit rules. This may require the mods to delete more off-topic comments, which worsens the issue, etc. So the established "best practice" is to delete but leave a moderator comment with an explanation so there's a paper trail.
    - account42 10mo ago
      It's fairly representative of reddit as a whole. Sure not all subreddits are this bad all the time but as soon as something comes up where people might have thoughts that the mods don't approve of...
- meindnoch 10mo ago
  [deleted]
  - ifh-hn 10mo ago
    This reply was deleted because it didn't meet the requirements for this thread. What follows is an overly long comment detailing exactly why. 10 paragraphs later You are now fully educated on this threads rules, please revisit the top of the thread to remember why to came here in the first place.
- the_af 10mo ago
  Another example: r/AskHistorians is so heavily moderated almost every comment gets deleted. Their standards of quality are very high. It's not a sub to push your views or argue, it's a sub for historians or people who can back an answer with academic references. So most comments and answers will get modded. It's oddly refreshing. No flamewars, no junk comments, no "everybody knows the reason X did Y is Z" because that won't be accepted by the mods. It's not perfect, but it's good enough.
  - MangoToupe 10mo ago
    AskHistorians is far and away the best moderated sub on the site, but it relies entirely on guidelines that you can understand and agree with. Moderation on other subs (no clue about this one) is so heinously biased it makes them unusable. Very common on political and news oriented subs....
  - deleted 10mo ago
    [deleted]
GCUMstlyHarmls 10mo ago
I read [Unauthorized Bread (exerpt) by Doctoro](https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/01/unauthorized-bread-a-near-future-tale-of-refugees-and-sinister-iot-appliances/ https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/01/unauthorized-bread-a-...) this year which was pretty approachable read on the topic. Not severely interesting or mind blowing if you're already here hopefully but did make me wonder how I could sneak it into my mums reading list.
- LtWorf 10mo ago
  I borrowed from the library last month. It was thought provoking and I think it's aimed at younger people than myself.
jamesbelchamber 10mo ago
We really need some legislation that outlaws this sort of control over devices we buy. If someone wants to install an advert app on their fridge (I assume in exchange for money) then fair enough. If I buy a tv I shouldn't just have to accept that, now or in the future, the manufacturer will sell advertising on it.
- duskdozer 10mo ago
  Already done! You agreed to it in the Terms and Conditions - you did read them, right? But yeah I agree with you, there needs to be a way for people to get away from ads without relying on the existence of some benevolent alternate company
  - moffkalast 10mo ago
    Despite what the average multinational will have you believe, terms and conditions usually don't hold up in court. If they write some illegal bullshit into it, it's just that, bullshit.
    - duskdozer 10mo ago
      Sure, but that depends on the thing actually being illegal first. Genuine question - how often in practice are terms and conditions successfully challenged? My thought is that companies like that would be able to drain plaintiffs out before it getting that far very often
      - hn8726 10mo ago
        And how often in practice are terms and conditions attempted to be enforced in the first place? No need to challenge them if you can ignore them
        ImPostingOnHN 10mo ago
        If ignoring them is your only option, and challenging them would fail, we would expect to see a lack of challenging them. Which we do. Unless there's a solid track record of people consistently challenging them and winning, we can assume, based on bayesian priors, that most people cannot. Which makes sense: court costs money.
ares623 10mo ago
Careless people
emsign 10mo ago
I knew using ad blockers is good for your mental health but this is plain creepy and unfair. Especially when advertisers know more and more about you as more and more everyday items are spying on you and serve you ads without any additional core functionality. Appliances don't get better, they are getting creepier to increase the return of investment for the manufacturers. The schizophrenics are just more sensitive to this enshittification of everyday items because they are quick to assume deliberate agency in chaotic events where there is none. But this is changing, for everybody. The problem is today you can't really tell anymore whether this "Carol" the ad was addressing is the advertiser knowing that it's your name or just a random "clever" reference to a character in the TV show, I mean even after getting the resolution that it's the latter, nobody can be sure if this excludes the former, like the algorithm decided to send Carol an ad about a show with a Carol in it. It's not good to have to make up your mind about it even when you are not suffering from schizophrenia. It's annoying, it's intrusive, it wastes your time and ruins your day. And it makes you hate your new tech, makes you hate tech in general, because it's a big "fuck you we can do what we want with you now" towards the customers. No wonder Luddites are making a come back, that's just self-defense.
- ainiriand 10mo ago
  Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they are not after you.
  - balamatom 10mo ago
    In fact, they're after you for being so paranoid.
bell-cot 10mo ago
IANAL, but could the ADA [1] or equivalent laws be applied to such a situation? If it was up to a jury, the creepy ads might not get much sympathy. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americans_with_Disabilities_Act_of_1990 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americans_with_Disabilities_Ac...
- partomniscient 10mo ago
  Given the situation occurred in the UK, I doubt it.
  - srmarm 10mo ago
    I think The Equality Act 2010 would be the UK equivalent. No idea whether it would cover this - might be a stretch.
renewiltord 10mo ago
[flagged]
- ferrouswheel 10mo ago
  Are you insane? I'm not sure you'd pass your own test. Haha
  - renewiltord 10mo ago
    I thoroughly enjoyed this response :D
- foxglacier 10mo ago
  I know that sounds like a horrible violation of individual freedom, but we already treat children and cognitively impaired elderly people that way. Maybe to graduate from childhood to adult-who-can-sign-contracts, have sexual relationships, vote, etc. everyone has to pass a test, and it's retested periodically in case you regress.
  - razingeden 10mo ago
    And yet no barriers or means test for Samsung? if its harmful in some way to some person the “obvious” solution is to means test the entire population for their competency to vote or have sex? i dont own a samsung fridge, but okay sure. sign me up for some weird battery of invasive tests and write me out of life so Samsung can sell hardware and ads. maybe samsung can even serve me some personalized ads based on my test results. everyone in big tech is guided by “CAN we do this?” and never “SHOULD we do this?” and theyre totally unaccountable for all of it. it doesnt matter who it hurts or how it hurts them. thats why they they do whatever they want. and if something goes wrong, hey i know! lets just turn the screws even tighter on every man woman and child so Samsung can do whatever it wants. Id tell you to go hell but it sounds like we’re already all in it. im sorry if thats rude but it actually was the most polite thing i could come up with.
    - renewiltord 10mo ago
bfkwlfkjf 10mo ago
Stallman was right.
- josfredo 10mo ago
  Sometimes you don’t need a Stallman to be right.
  - balamatom 10mo ago
    Yet there is a Stallman anyway.
- YurgenJurgensen 10mo ago
  Stallman didn’t even conceive of this threat. Would it be any better if it was an open source dystopian mind-control machine?
  - pwdisswordfishy 10mo ago
    Open source, as in corporate outsourcing software maintenance to free labour? No. Free software, as in four freedoms? Yes, because you could install your own firmware that doesn't show advertisements. That's what the whole GPLv3 debacle was about after all. Stallman may have not imagined this specific scenario, but he absolutely did conceive of owner-hostile software that could not be replaced.
    - YurgenJurgensen 10mo ago
      You could, but would most people? Most people voluntarily subject themselves to garbage adware-ridden SmartTVs even though this is a problem you can solve with a £12 dongle and no software installation at all. If the humble HDMI cable defeats the average person’s technical ability, what difference would it make if they could technically install their own firmware?
      - adamwong246 10mo ago
globular-toast 10mo ago
The gut reaction of too many geeks is "I can't believe you'd install a smart fridge in your home". But we need to think about this differently. Imagine if vehicles had no mandatory safety checks. How many people know anything about car safety? You'd get people barrelling down the highway with broken suspension, bald tyres or worse. We are the professionals. It's our responsibility to keep the public safe and stop shit like this happening. The software engineers who implemented this at Samsung should be struck off. Well, we could start by having something to be struck off from. I'm done with assuming individual developers will be scrupulous. We need real consequences to come from higher up. It's way past the point that this is fucking with people's lives.
- duskdozer 10mo ago
  It also falls apart over when more and more products become "smart" to the point where you can't really even buy one without things like this, like TVs now or cars for that matter. I'm dreading the day where I end up forced to watch an ad before starting my car. I do think some kind of ethics training/education/licensing/organization is long overdue for software devs.
- ErroneousBosh 10mo ago
  > You'd get people barrelling down the highway with broken suspension, bald tyres or worse. You have this in most of the US, and people rail against any attempt to bring it in because they're frightened that garages will not give them their cars back if they think it's got something wrong with it. I've seen people driving cars in the US that you wouldn't even be able to get a scrapyard to take in the UK, they'd tell you to just sweep it into a bag and put it in the recycling.
- chickensong 10mo ago
  Real consequences from higher up... for ads on a fridge? Corporate execs only care about money. Engineers aren't going to get themselves fired every time someone asks for a feature they don't agree with. Government? We don't need more nanny laws. What we need is for people to think for themselves. The powers that be aren't going to save you from all the bad things. Call out the bad things to educate people, and vote with your wallet.
metalman 10mo ago
it should read, "Schizophenic correctly diagnoses societies ongoing pschcotic episode through the phenominon of refrigerator advertising"
Jordan-117 10mo ago
"I just saw something incredibly cool! A big floating ball that lit up with every color in the rainbow, plus some new ones that were so beautiful I fell to my knees and cried." "Was it out in front of Discount Shoe Outlet?" "Yeah..." "They have a college kid wear that to attract customers."
- duskdozer 10mo ago
  "Didn't you have ads in the 20th century?" "Well, sure, but not in our dreams. Only on TV and radio. And in magazines and movies and at ball games, on buses and milk cartons and T-shirts and bananas and written on the sky. But not in dreams. No, sir-ee!"
Lapsa 10mo ago
[flagged]
saltysalt 10mo ago
Everyday we take one step closer to a PKD envisioned future.
- gilleain 10mo ago
  > “I’ll sue you,” the door said as the first screw fell out. Joe Chip said, “I’ve never been sued by a door. But I guess I can live through it.” From Ubik
  - saltysalt 10mo ago
    That scene is exactly what I had in mind :-) Such a wonderful book.
  - chickensong 10mo ago
    One of my favorite PKD novels. Thanks for the reminder of it!
- madaxe_again 10mo ago
  Better tip the smart door, never know what’ll happen if there’s a fire someday. Speaking of, better tip the toaster.
  - saltysalt 10mo ago
    The Internet of [spiteful] Things.
Lapsa 10mo ago
there hasn't been a single schizophrenia diagnosis for a born blind person
- edm0nd 10mo ago
  whoa, that's a really neat and cool fact. I never knew this. for the curious, https://www.healthcentral.com/condition/schizophrenia/blindness-and-schizophrenia https://www.healthcentral.com/condition/schizophrenia/blindn...
- balamatom 10mo ago
  Wonder why (I don't wonder why) I remember when borderline/schizoid fren saw some stuff made by one of the first generative models released to the public, Deep Dream. I hadda smack that laptop shut, my fren froze catatonic from looking at those dog-shaped landscapes
- mlrtime 10mo ago
  What is the probability of being born blind? What is the probability of having schizophrenia? What is the probability of both? What is the probability of both + having resources to have it diagnosed?
  - quesera 10mo ago
    Some quick numbers: 1/2500 .. What is the probability of being born blind? 1/100 .. What is the probability of having schizophrenia? 1/250000* .. What is the probability of both? 1/250000* .. What is the probability of both + having resources to have it diagnosed? [*] Assuming genetic blindness (born this way) and schizophrenia (elevated genetic risk) are not somehow inversely linked. So, in the US: 340MM people -> 1360 born-blind people who would develop schizophrenia Reduce that by half or so, since schizophrenia tends to emerge in or after adolescence. And since it may be confusable at older ages with other brain health issues (is this true?). So call it 700 people in the US alone. If it is in fact zero, that is significant! I chose the US because 100% people will have adequate access to this level of medical care. A formal diagnosis is not the same thing as access, but a born-blind person either has parents/family, or has a state warden with access to care. This is also true in many many other countries, but certainly not all. The US has 4.1% of the world population. Figure 50% of the world does not have this level of medical access. It's probably less than that, but maybe not. This suggests about 10,000 people worldwide, living today, who would be affected, and in an environment where they would be diagnosed.
GaryBluto 10mo ago
When I first saw somebody complain about the Pluribus smart fridge ad I immediately knew something like this was going to happen. How did Apple/Samsung not think this through?
- edm0nd 10mo ago
  if you read the entire reddit thread, OPs sisters name actually was Carol. That's why it wigged her out so much and triggered her schizophrenia to kick in I suppose.
  - GaryBluto 10mo ago
    I know, that's what I originally thought.
- sva_ 10mo ago
  They probably do not care if they're not legally liable.
xioxox 10mo ago
Although adverts on the fridge are absolutely terrible, is this genuine? Here's a reddit post some time before that suggesting the scenario: https://old.reddit.com/r/assholedesign/comments/1ow6cpu/apparently_my_samsung_fridge_has_ads_now/nonrm5s/ https://old.reddit.com/r/assholedesign/comments/1ow6cpu/appa...
- GaryBluto 10mo ago
  Just because someone suggested a possible scenario could happen and it then did happen isn't all that suspicious to me.
  - xioxox 10mo ago
    Of course it might be genuine, but there's also a history of r/LegalAdviceUK getting a number of creative writing exercises. See this post: https://old.reddit.com/r/LegalAdviceUK/comments/1loyctr/ragebait_astroturfing_misinformation_heres_some/ https://old.reddit.com/r/LegalAdviceUK/comments/1loyctr/rage...
    - JimDabell 10mo ago
      Why use the “creative writing exercise” euphemism that obscures the dishonesty? Call them liars, fakes, frauds, or whatever.
      - mlrtime 10mo ago
        Because it's internet + social media. You should assume 60% of it is made up, every time. People are either saying things they know to be untrue, or things they think are true but or not.
      - Gracana 10mo ago
        Because it’s not that serious.
    - bityard 10mo ago
      I used to follow a few personal finance and FIRE subs. Pretty much all of them had surprising number of creative writing exercises too: "I just inherited $10 million from a dead relative I never knew, what should I do?" Or: "I sold my online business for $37 million, is this enough to retire on?" These daydreamers always create fresh throwaway accounts and usually never come back to answer clarifying questions. If they do, their answers are vague and unhelpful.
shlip 10mo ago
Every time I see an article on HN about a "smart" device doing shitty things, my first thought is why would someone (especially from this crowd, who's supposed to be enlightened about the state of enshittification of tech) buy any IoS device in the first place ? What good could you expect from an appliance that's permanently communicating with its non-giving a f*ck about users, profit driven, immoral and unethical mothership ? Would you really expect your life to be better after buying such a product ?
- lazide 10mo ago
  The real fun one - most rental places, the landlord buys/provides the fridge.
  - YurgenJurgensen 10mo ago
    Are we at ad-supported rental apartments yet? “Sorry, it’s in the rental contract that we’re not allowed to turn off the TV or cover it up.”
    - defrost 10mo ago
      On the double-plus-good side there's often a corner of the room where the TV can't see you . . .
  - account42 10mo ago
    Is that really the case? Even with furbished kitchens the fridge is often something the tenant owns IME and rentals with unfurnished kitchens are not that uncommon here.
- RobotToaster 10mo ago
  There's an old joke that a tech enthusiast will have "smart" everything in their house, while someone who works in tech keeps a shotgun in case their 10 year old laser printer makes a funny noise...
  - 10mo ago
keepamovin 10mo ago
If modern ad tech and future holographic display technology makes schizophrenic symptoms indistinguishable from regular waking consciousness in our Bitchun society...does that make us all crazy? or all sane?
gaigalas 10mo ago
This is obviously reddit fiction.
yokoprime 10mo ago
If there is one appliance in my house that does not need a LCD screen and «smart» features, it’s my fridge. It was installed maybe 6 years ago, I adjusted some temperature settings and I’ve never touched the dials again.
- eimrine 10mo ago
  It does not need neither screens nor chips, one knob mounted to thermo relay is self-descriptive.
- account42 10mo ago
  Need might be a bit much but I think I would benefit from the fridge tracking expiry dates and reminding me to use up groceries before they go bad. Having a place in the kitchen to show digital recipes is also not useless. I don't trust any tech company to provide this without fucking it up with ads or other dark patterns though so I too still have a screen-less fridge.
zerof1l 10mo ago
I don't understand why people willingly pay thousands for these fridges. Just buy a regular fridge without the screen.
- Kirth 10mo ago
  While you still can..
- eimrine 10mo ago
  I searched for this comment for a long time, it should be the first one.
- sallveburrpi 10mo ago
  I recently tried this for a new TV - buying a regular “non-smart” TV without the internet features without being “AI-enabled” (whatever the fuck that means). It wasn’t possible - there was literally no TV available that didn’t have a small computer built in to connect to the internet and send all my usage data somewhere. I probably have to find a second hand one somewhere or just continue to live without one. Not saying that it’s the same with fridges - but who knows a few years down the line it might be…
  - deleted 10mo ago
    [deleted]
  - charlesabarnes 10mo ago
    I never understand this type of refrain. Why connect the TV to the Internet? I have yet to run into a TV that doesn't work entirely offline at any pricepoint
    - sallveburrpi 10mo ago
      What is the point of a smart TV though?
      - deleted 10mo ago
        [deleted]
cracki 10mo ago
Time to ban all adverts everywhere. I'm not the only one who is fed up with ads. I don't see ads, thanks to ad blocking tech in browsers and smartphones. Any time that happens to fail and I get to endure an ad, I am amazed that regular people without ad blocking tech can endure this onslaught. The time to negotiate a "middle ground" is long past. Let's not even entertain that idea. An acceptable middle ground could have been designated areas for ads, which you have to seek out to see them. Think of the Yellow Pages. Ad companies need to be reined in. They cannot control themselves. They are lobbying against all limits and controls. The only solution is to eradicate ads entirely and to make sure that anyone who gets that idea will never get it again.
- mikkupikku 10mo ago
  Legal ads in product catalogues only. Product catalogues are actually useful and nobody is subjected to them unless they chose to seek one out and pick it up willingly.
  - duskdozer 10mo ago
    I'm glad to hear someone else come to this as the solution for ads.
  - nish__ 10mo ago
    Wait, what? I'm confused. Is the entire product catalogue considered an ad? Or do you mean parts of a product catalogue can contain adverts? I'd argue a product catalogue is not advertising at all.
    - mikkupikku 10mo ago
      I consider each product listing in a catalogues to be ads, or perhaps the whole catalogues is one big aggregate ad. Either way, I'm fine with them. Product catalogues are mostly innocuous and usually provide more empirical product information than other forms of advertisement.
      - 10mo ago
ginko 10mo ago
I simply can't fathom why anyone would spend extra money on a "smart" fridge. Let alone one that shows ads. Why would you even want one of those?
SideburnsOfDoom 10mo ago
FYI, the slogan ""WE'RE SORRY WE UPSET YOU, CAROL" on a yellow background is from the Apple TV Show "Pluribus" (Or "PLUR1BUS"). It would be an ad for that show. It is indeed creepy at times. The main character is called "Carol". As also, it seems is the person who saw it here.
randyrand 10mo ago
Obviously made up... This ad did the rounds last week and people were talking in the comments about this scenario. Sure it could've happened, but odds are this is just made up.
- commandersaki 10mo ago
  Been there and absolutely can see this happening, it is sometimes a prodromal symptom called a 'sign of reference' [1]. I recall during my first psychosis episode thinking a TNT logistics van contained a bomb and was being used as a terrorist vehicle to blow up a building (or maybe at the time I think it could have been targeting myself directly). Also, in that same episode, the train stations in Sydney were being plastered on every possible space and surface with high contrast white on blue posters that said "HEY TOSSER!" [2]; it was an anti littering ad campaign bringing some levity to the situation. My mind was overwhelmed by both its alerting nature and the fact that everywhere I would turn I'd see a poster, and in my infirmity it felt like someone was pointing a finger an inch from my forehead arresting me to say I should stop being a tosser in the derogatory (Australian slang) sense (though my mind was contending with the many multiple meanings). [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideas_and_delusions_of_reference https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideas_and_delusions_of_referen... [2]: https://imgur.com/a/wyVDNN4 https://imgur.com/a/wyVDNN4
- stainablesteel 10mo ago
  this seems reasonable to me, i don't have schizophrenia but i'm pretty sure i'd start stabbing a fridge if I ever saw it give me an advertisement
  - tyleo 10mo ago
    Same. I’m pretty stable but just looking at pictures of that ad in the comments I felt my heart-BMP raise. It isn’t just the fact that it’s an ad. The intense black and yellow is unsettling with strong ‘warning’ vibes. Here’s a picture for folks wondering: https://www.reddit.com/r/assholedesign/comments/1ow6cpu/apparently_my_samsung_fridge_has_ads_now/ https://www.reddit.com/r/assholedesign/comments/1ow6cpu/appa...
unyttigfjelltol 10mo ago
Manufacturers for 100 years didn’t try to wrap their fridges in ads, or tune the compressor sound to a commercial jingle. They sold mostly honest products to cool your food efficiently. But when they add an LED display and Internet connection, suddenly they forget about cooling your food and impulsively add a bunch of adversarial functionality, meaning functions that monetize the consumer rather than keeping the food cool. It’s like the Internet advertising ecosystem is a virus intent on infecting anything and anyone with an Internet connection, making them do bizarre customer-hostile things they never would have done otherwise.
- gregoriol 10mo ago
  You are way off: it's just about money. For a long time, making appliances was an ok business, making good stuff, selling them, factories running, employment, margins ok, ... and there was progress/innovation to do. Now that there is not much to update or innovate with, and companies have already squeezed workers in Bengladesh to the max, the only current innovation and additional money source are "connected" and "ads".
  - MangoToupe 10mo ago
    I don't see any contradiction between the two takes; I suspect capital pressure will force us into an inhumane dystopia where baseline existence is miserable, and quiet rational thought is a luxury.
  - account42 10mo ago
    > and there was progress/innovation to do Also cost-cutting to increase those margins. The ads are a natural extension of that.
- RataNova 10mo ago
  Exactly. Nobody ever asked for a fridge that doubles as a billboard
- SoftTalker 10mo ago
  Not really true. I've found coupons in new appliances. I've found detergent samples in a new dishwasher. That's advertising.
toxicplanes1 10mo ago
[dead]
arpcodes 10mo ago
the end of HN when reddit fanfic reaches the frontpage
- sallveburrpi 10mo ago
  the end of HN when every comment is parroting the same thing >implying HN was ever good
arpcodes 10mo ago
made an account just to note that when reddit fanfic is reaching the front-page, we might be on the downslope and it's sad
- bigyabai 10mo ago
  Your concern is not that refrigerators display ads, or that Apple is goading schizoaffective people, but that Reddit is lying? You're right, this website is headed on the down slope and your comment proves it perfectly.
  - venturecruelty 10mo ago
    Hard to get a man to understand something, dot dot dot.
neomantra 10mo ago
Next up: <blink> tags on fridge triggers seizures Back in the day we asked webmasters to run their web sites through Bobby for accessibility checks. I am curious if any LLM work like this is being done. If it were really a smart fridge, it would moderate its users content appropriately. Eg I don’t want haram ads, don’t freak me out, I’m color blind.
api 10mo ago
Don’t buy appliances with anything but a small screen. Any large screen on any appliance will be used to show ads. If not now then eventually. It’s also a gimmick, and gimmicks on things like appliances and cars are red flags for poor quality. Appliances in particular are best when simple and designed for their function. “Feature” means “thing that will break.”
da_grift_shift 10mo ago
HN baited by karma farmers once again. Here's the /r/assholedesign post: https://old.reddit.com/r/assholedesign/comments/1ow6cpu/apparently_my_samsung_fridge_has_ads_now/ https://old.reddit.com/r/assholedesign/comments/1ow6cpu/appa... It shows a webpage with an ad being displayed in the browser app. How do we know? Full-screen ads don't show on the cover screen (home screen). Here's the investigation: https://9to5google.com/samsung-smart-fridge-ads-how-to-turn-off/ https://9to5google.com/samsung-smart-fridge-ads-how-to-turn-... >Any ad shown would be limited to the cover screen widget, which displays news, weather, and calendar events. >The ad shown in the Reddit photo is of the fridge’s Samsung Internet app. Through that, an ad seems to have shown up organically through a third-party website. Here's the docs that talk about ads on the cover screen: https://www.samsung.com/us/support/answer/ANS10007562/ https://www.samsung.com/us/support/answer/ANS10007562/ It's easy for ragebait to short-circuit your critical thinking skills. Don't let Redditards like /u/Shellnanigans get their fix.
- dqv 10mo ago
  Well they might want to produce some photos or screenshots of what it actually looks like when it displays ads. So far, they are only telling us what it doesn't look like, which doesn't instill much confidence. It should have been pretty easy for them to say "and here's what it actually looks like btw: [photo.jpg] [screenshot.png]". They didn't do that though. Why might that be?
  - da_grift_shift 10mo ago
    Here's an actual Samshit fridge cover screen with the new ad widget: https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Samsung-fridge-ad.jpg.webp https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/... Here's a GIF of it rotating through the modes: https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Family-Hub-Advertising-Alpha-Pilot-GIF.gif https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/... Here's the source article: https://www.androidauthority.com/samsung-smart-fridge-ad-update-rollout-3610402/ https://www.androidauthority.com/samsung-smart-fridge-ad-upd... Now where do I get my 10% commission on /u/Shellnanigans's 67,135 internet points?
efilife 10mo ago
this post is a meme (or an attempt to shed light at the problem) referencing a video by louis rossmann who foreshadows that something like this could hypothetically happen
Lambdanaut 10mo ago
As a schizotypal person, I'm unsure how more people aren't exhibiting paranoid schizophrenic symptoms in this wildly untrustworthy digital age. Yesterday a good friend reached out to me on a new phone number to wish me happy holidays, she shortly afterwards asked me to donate to a fund to help her sick cat. Even though this person had a similar typing style, the unrecognized phone number made me feel paranoid that it may be an LLM attempting to get money from me in an automated scam, so I made the choice to call my friend to get more evidence via voice. It turned out to be my friend(or an even more elaborate ruse using voice capture and mass data-mining tech, but that seemed extremely unlikely, at least for another couple years). My brother had full on shizpphrenia, and would often call family members asking them to provide evidence that they are who they say they are and not government robots. It was an obvious delusion when he was alive, but now that we're in a world where that sort of evidence-gathering is no longer extreme, paranoia is the new normal. Our usual safeguards of identity are breaking down, and you can bet that large corporations with an eye on the coin are going to swoop in to establish new, more secure methods of identification.
- ghc 10mo ago
  Society, in a sense, is highly dependent on trustworthy interactions. Credit, ownership transfers, banking, etc. all depend on trust. If we go back to only being able to trust in-person interactions, we'll be stepping back to a financial system from over 100 years ago. Because of this, I believe that solutions will be developed. Nothing is 100% fool-proof, but the government depends on a solution being found.
- citizenpaul 10mo ago
  >swoop in to establish new, more secure methods of identification. This is already being done. However it is being done in backroom deals to make sure that the individual has no control over their identity only the corporations. You are not who you say you are, you are what a corporation decides you are. Plaid is a huge player in this space.
earsay 10mo ago
[dead]
- Pikamander2 10mo ago
  The YouTube equivalent is SponsorBlock: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/sponsorblock-for-youtube/mnjggcdmjocbbbhaepdhchncahnbgone?hl=en https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/sponsorblock-for-yo... https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/sponsorblock/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/sponsorblock/ And the smart fridge equivalent is either PiHole, or.. not buying a smart fridge.
nish__ 10mo ago
File suit.
daggersandscars 10mo ago
If you have a router you control, many routers allow you to take away internet access from a device while keeping it on your local network. Some (all?) Asus routers can do this from their UI. This won’t help with devices that require 24x7 internet access, but it’s great for things you want to access the local network but don’t trust not to send info to a third party. (TVs, music amps with built in streaming, home surveillance systems [1], etc.) Also handy for briefly turning on Internet access for software updates or one time activation. [1] while making a surveillance system available online safely and with software you control isn’t hard, it’s not trivial. Turning Internet access off for your cameras without a plan will mean you can’t monitor your home or get alerts when away from your local network.
cyberlimerence 10mo ago
Reads like something out of Philip K. Dick’s writing. Fridges with ads. Talking doors.
barfoure 10mo ago
Yeah… she’s not wrong. If you want to put an end to this you’ll either need to boycott products, make your own, or get something serious passed to abolish a good chunk of ads. This industry is loaded with money and they reinforce their own (see: ads on fridges) so good luck. It’s a tough battle. Oh, and there are no roadway ads in Vermont.
RataNova 10mo ago
I just hope the sister gets some peace and that her doctors take this as an environmental trigger
kyledrake 10mo ago
I inherited a Samsung fridge when I moved to a new place, it was a terrible fridge with serious mechanical flaws. The deicer broke, causing a constant stream of leaking water in the fridge. The French door middle component hinge was cheap plastic that broke and I had to replace it, then it broke again and I had to replace it again, then it broke again. I finally gave up and replaced the fridge. Recommendation threads on Reddit usually begin with "anything but Samsung". They seem designed to be made cheap and hit the lowest price point with consumers that don't want to spend a lot more on something they don't really care about, so I'm not surprised to learn that ads are a part of their strategy. But also, why do fridges need to connect to the internet?
- eYrKEC2 10mo ago
  You just described my samsung fridge.
  - kyledrake 10mo ago
    Solidarity, friend. I hope you're able to keep it working on decent order. If you give up, I replaced it with a Whirlpool and it seems fine.
deleted 10mo ago
[deleted]
jader201 10mo ago
I know this is the sort of story HN would love to be true (and to be clear, I think ads on appliances are Black Mirror level stuff), but this — like most things on Reddit — is made up. [1] This story, while fun to discuss, should be flagged, and not on the FP of HN. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46171868 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46171868
- grayhatter 10mo ago
  Someone predicted this exact thing is your evidence it's fiction? How much meaningful experience do you have with psychosis and mental illness?
  - jader201 10mo ago
    That thread goes into how Samsung has confirmed that this ad can’t show up like it did [1]. There are many comments in that thread debunking this. Which is why I linked the whole thread, not a single comment. When something posts something on Reddit that sounds far fetched (fun to believe, but unlikely), we (the HN community) should default to skepticism/critical thinking, rather than assuming it’s true without evidence that it is. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46173338 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46173338
    - grayhatter 10mo ago
      > When something posted on Reddit that sounds far fetched (fun to believe, but unlikely), we should default to skepticism/critical thinking, rather than assuming it’s true without evidence that it is. That's my point. This doesn't sound at all far fetched if you've spent time with people recovering from psychosis with visual hallucinations. I'm normally a very skeptical person, and while I both agree claims require evidence. I don't find the comment thread from before very compelling evidence. Fake or not, I do believe that an ad with the text from the troll image would show up on a smart fridge, I don't trust Samsung to tell the truth^1, and importantly the minimal description from the linked post describes an experience similar to one I've seen before working with a patient. (But from a print ad.) Even if this exac is fiction, this kinda stuff actually happens. Perhaps I'm wrong, to believe it's plausible, but dismissing it outright is a mistake. You don't want to acknowledge hallucinations are real, but more important than that, you don't want to tell someone that they're lying without positive proof. edit ^1: I read that exactly prior to reading your reply, and yes I do agree that explanation seems to be correct; that wasn't what I was basing my take on. i.e. true or not it's less important to my original objection. Or I find it plausible than even a small advert would result in the same event.
tonymet 10mo ago
I'm no prude, but I'm finding horror, pharma & sex ads to be incredibly disturbing in how they are presented. Google TV takes over my wall with moderately graphic horror movie ads. My family members aren't comfortable with horror and they have no way to use the TV otherwise. It's unsetting in the middle of the night. And graphic pharma ads for stomach turning skin disorders and other inappropriate disorders play even during casual, family content. And most of the sexual content is not family friendly -- even I find it awkward to have on the wall, especially when my parents visit. These devices used to be ours with some level of control, and now they are all remotely managed to present awful content at all hours
- ashoeafoot 10mo ago
  [dead]
- willidiots 10mo ago
  Google TV showing ads on the home screen convinced me to buy an Apple TV. Had to go back to a set-top box - to use the same apps I have built into the TV - just because Apple won't spam me with this shit.
  - wlesieutre 10mo ago
    Apple won't spam you with this shit yet Rumors are that Apple Maps advertising is incoming soon
    - tonymet 10mo ago
      the only way they will continue with AppleTV (TV+) is to put ads. they haven't gained enough subscribers to keep that business unit solvent.
  - tonymet 10mo ago
    It's a good tip, I may end up doing that. I'm hoping that Apple has better standards for third party streaming apps (just yesterday I made a Ask HN post about how terrible they are)
randomNumber7 10mo ago
I recently downloaded an app to use my smartphone screen as a reading light. So a simple app that lets you control the color and brightness of the screen. You only find this with adds on the play store and it shares your data with 3. parties as well as permanently showing an add banner. This isn't progress, it's broken.
- zuminator 10mo ago
  I found a couple of ad free apps within seconds. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.wearefamily.readinglamp https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.wearefamil... https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jp.co.vixen.nightvisionlight https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jp.co.vixen.ni... Is there a certain must-have feature you're looking for?
  - randomNumber7 10mo ago
    Great, thank you. How do you query in a way to find the ad free apps?
varispeed 10mo ago
These targeted ads are incredibly harmful when you have to take care of someone with psychosis. They think that someone who is listening to them is sending them "messages" through ads and that feeds into paranoia. Unfortunately it is not possible to reason in such situations with the person and any attempt to explain tracking is met with hostility. I really wish regulators stopped being corrupt, naive or both and outright made it illegal. There is no upside for tracking of any kind for consumers.
roughly 10mo ago
I know this isn’t Just a Samsung problem, but it’s sure not Not a Samsung problem either. Samsung’s taken the early-00’s Sony crown of most anti-consumer company out there - don’t buy Samsung.
lifeisstillgood 10mo ago
In the golden era of advertising (don’t really know but say before the iPhone) there was no “opt-out”. If you wanted to watch Lucille Ball, rich or poor you had to sit through the ads. If you wanted to read the New York Times article, rich or poor, you had to turn the full page ad over. Today that’s gone - you can for a fee never see an advert again. And that fee is easier to pay if you are rich, and harder if poor. And so more and more “traditional” advertising will become aggressive and aimed at both lower income audience and more scammy products (because you are selling to the poorest you cannot beat costs eventually). And advertising will stop being about “brand” (which are naturally less aggressive and focused on closing) and more about the last click to sale. We are already seeing this world take shape, as “influencers” become the way to reach those who have paid to stop all other advertising, and why travel influencers are head of that pack. Ultimately this is about design of our public spaces. We rightly celebrate architects, civil engineers and their sponsors who create enjoyable and beneficial built areas - we have still to get a hold of the digital public spaces. While Times Square has a quality of its own, living there permanently would have mental health issues for most of us. And in the end, positive public spaces are associated with the words paternalism, socialism, public good and none with Toll, extraction, rentierism. The arguments against ads are arguments for paternalism of government control for a better life for us all.
hobbitstan 10mo ago
[dead]
qwertox 10mo ago
I wish ads were allowed to only state facts, and that in a non-misleading context.
- account42 10mo ago
  No, scrap the Ministry for Truth as well - those are just as much about manipulation as companies wanting you to buy shit you don't need.
beedeebeedee 10mo ago
These companies have no decency. Putting ads on a fridge! They’ve already invaded our phones and computers, and almost everywhere else. This needs to stop
Animats 10mo ago
At least the fridge didn't play the video version.[1] [1] https://www.youtube.com/shorts/rzmFNVBIfCQ https://www.youtube.com/shorts/rzmFNVBIfCQ
offmycloud 10mo ago
Reddit used to be free for anyone to view without logging in, but now I get "Your request has been blocked due to a network policy." Sorry, but I'm not turning my ad blocker off.
dabinat 10mo ago
I was in a car accident a few years ago that triggered my pre-existing PTSD, so it was a very rough experience. This experience was made worse by the fact that my insurer apparently sold the fact I had been in a crash to third-parties. I could not go anywhere on the internet without seeing personal injury ads, which often featured gratuitous pictures of crashes. This felt incredibly creepy and made a bad experience much worse.
- u8vov8 10mo ago
  On the day Melissa Hortman and her husband were killed, I started getting Youtube ads for silencers and tactical gear. I guess it follows that people were searching for those sort topics then and I fit some cohort (probably "angry young male"), but it was very unnerving. Now Youtube mostly shows me ads for fake AI generated products and other scams.
hartator 10mo ago
The actual ad: https://www.reddit.com/r/assholedesign/s/YD4vBNXfLY https://www.reddit.com/r/assholedesign/s/YD4vBNXfLY Too bad for the backslash, it’s a great show.
- bigyabai 10mo ago
  Apple's ad department hasn't exactly been knocking them out of the park lately.
nelox 10mo ago
[flagged]
teekert 10mo ago
I love technology but avoid all the smart stuff because it's all shit, all spyware, all will eventually show ads. Its a perversion of something that could have been so nice. I have Philips Hue lights, it started out great, now every time I open that app it slaps an ad in my face. I paid hundreds of euros for that system. Never again.
djaouen 10mo ago
I, for one, welcome our new fridge overlords. Might I also remind them that I can be useful in rounding up, hoarding, if you will, other humans for fridge-related activities thanks to my 39-year experience with ice, frozen fruits, etc.
justinhj 10mo ago
This story and the discussion here highlights how useful X's community notes can be
laincide 10mo ago
im glad the minds here figured it to be fake as well. makes me have a little bit of hope for this world.
wlonkly 10mo ago
It's a pretty big coincidence that the thing that someone mentioned in passing about in this earlier post[1] happened to come true some days later, from a 4-day-old Reddit account. The legal advice subreddits are, unfortunately, often the target of some creative writing exercises. I feel like this is probably one, but acknowledge we'll never know for sure. Either way it's a terrible ad and fridges shouldn't have ads. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/assholedesign/comments/1ow6cpu/apparently_my_samsung_fridge_has_ads_now/ https://www.reddit.com/r/assholedesign/comments/1ow6cpu/appa...
sizzle 10mo ago
This is a fabricated story/made up post, see here: https://www.reddit.com/r/assholedesign/comments/1ow6cpu/apparently_my_samsung_fridge_has_ads_now/ https://www.reddit.com/r/assholedesign/comments/1ow6cpu/appa... “EDIT 2: Hello, I am the original poster of the carol AD image from a month ago. I am a male from America and my name is not Carol. The story about a Schizophrenic woman named carol was most likely fabricated from the 3rd top comment on this post. Thanks!” Fake Post: https://www.reddit.com/r/LegalAdviceUK/comments/1pc7999/my_schizophrenic_sister_hospitalised_herself/ https://www.reddit.com/r/LegalAdviceUK/comments/1pc7999/my_s...
Telaneo 10mo ago
Given what that ad said, I can hardly blame her. That must have been horrifying. Imagine if advertisers were directly responsible for cleaning up after themselves. For newspapers, they'd need to recycle the equivelent amount of paper their ads take up in all papers distributed. For ads on digital devices, an amount of processing power equivalent to the amount used to display them all would be user for a good cause (say folding). Or even just the same amount of electrical power used could be donated to a good cause. And for incidents like this, the company would be directly liable and bound to clean up. Or we could just ban them and also get rid of the long list of other downsides with ads.
dragonwriter 10mo ago
Í'm not sure we should be treating posts from Fun-Blueberry-2147 on r/LegalAdviceUK as actual news items.
- SideburnsOfDoom 10mo ago
  Agreed. What an actual journalist would do to make it a news item would be to start with tracking down and interviewing the actual people supposedly involved. Basic verification and fact checking, the grunt work of journalism. If it still exists, it's an endangered species.
replwoacause 10mo ago
This is fake and based on this earlier post to Reddit. Someone just karma farming https://www.reddit.com/r/assholedesign/s/FzGerVEUM8 https://www.reddit.com/r/assholedesign/s/FzGerVEUM8
stuaxo 10mo ago
It would be best to ban advertising on things that didn't advertise before, especially in people's homes where the effects can't be seen.
Xunie 10mo ago
On a very related note, I've been seeing a lot of what I coined as "schizophrenic design" in technology over the past 10 years. I started using this term to describe technology making you question yourself or the state of the system. Did I just get shadowbanned or does no one find my posts interesting? Am I shadowbanned or are my posts just deranked but still visible? Why does changing my profile picture trigger me to now require a phone to continue using the website? Did it mark me as a spambot or is this a normal sign up procedure? Did I get banned or did the group get deleted? Did I really forget to untick that "I'd like to receive marketing" checkbox? I can't really put my thumb on it. Now imagine this stuff with personalization and algorithms that know you're pregnant before you do. If anything, food intake is probably a very high quality signal on biological changes such as pregnancy. If you don't control the technology, the technology controls you.

543 points by hliyan 10mo ago

firoso 10mo ago

[flagged]

onetokeoverthe 10mo ago
[dead]

ifh-hn 10mo ago

An edge case of "smart" tech... As an aside, having scroll that thread, Reddit is a shambles. There's more deleted comments and related justification comment than actual comments. Make for a jarring experience.

OhioMan2943 10mo ago
Absolutely- I can't understand why it still has such a loyal base considering how low the quality is- I see more insightful discussion on facebook half the time
- danielbln 10mo ago
  Because Reddit != Reddit and each subreddit has their own audience and moderation style. Most of Reddit might be a cesspit, but that doesn't mean all of it is.
- globular-toast 10mo ago
  I can't understand why cigarettes have such a loyal fanbase. They're smelly and expensive. Costing roughly 4k a year, I can't understand why someone wouldn't buy a nicer car or massive TV or something. Whenever a platform is popular these days I just assume it is more addictive.
  - mlrtime 10mo ago
    Well op is comparing one cigarette to another, expanding your metaphors. And they're both "free".
    - dotancohen 10mo ago
      Free, sure, if your privacy has no value.
  - OhioMan2943 10mo ago
    It's a long long, sad fall from when websites used to be popular primarily because they were insightful, cool or creative
  - account42 10mo ago
    Which is very on topic because being addictive is all that's needed to succeed in the ad-funded world.
brendoelfrendo 10mo ago
It's a legal advice subreddit; they tend to have stricter moderation because their primary goal is to get the OP an answer to their question or advice on how to consult a legal professional about their issue. Posts like the one linked here tend to be a magnet for people more interested in the drama than the actual legal principles, so they end up being a wasteland of removed comments.
- mcv 10mo ago
  Exactly. There are reasons for those many deleted comments. It's specific to this subreddit for very good reasons and not something you can use to disparage all of reddit. Many subreddits have their own rules and culture.
  - ifh-hn 10mo ago
    It's not disparaging to point out a fact. The whole delete comment content but keep the comment and then add a reply comment with wordy reason for deletion of comment content is a shambles. And irrespective of whether it's on every subreddit or not, doesn't make it less so. It's basically just spam at this point. My solution would be to simply delete the comment and PM the OP. If another user had already replied, replace the original content with a *short* reason for deletion, and PM the OP, leaving the replies in place unless they needed deleting.
    - brendoelfrendo 10mo ago
      It's a recursive issue, and this is something that Reddit could potentially improve. Reddit preserves a deleted comment's space in the comments section as [deleted]. Users who see a graveyard of deleted comments will comment to wonder why, especially if they are unfamiliar with the subreddit rules. This may require the mods to delete more off-topic comments, which worsens the issue, etc. So the established "best practice" is to delete but leave a moderator comment with an explanation so there's a paper trail.
  - account42 10mo ago
    It's fairly representative of reddit as a whole. Sure not all subreddits are this bad all the time but as soon as something comes up where people might have thoughts that the mods don't approve of...
meindnoch 10mo ago
[deleted]
- ifh-hn 10mo ago
  This reply was deleted because it didn't meet the requirements for this thread. What follows is an overly long comment detailing exactly why. 10 paragraphs later You are now fully educated on this threads rules, please revisit the top of the thread to remember why to came here in the first place.
the_af 10mo ago
Another example: r/AskHistorians is so heavily moderated almost every comment gets deleted. Their standards of quality are very high. It's not a sub to push your views or argue, it's a sub for historians or people who can back an answer with academic references. So most comments and answers will get modded. It's oddly refreshing. No flamewars, no junk comments, no "everybody knows the reason X did Y is Z" because that won't be accepted by the mods. It's not perfect, but it's good enough.
- MangoToupe 10mo ago
  AskHistorians is far and away the best moderated sub on the site, but it relies entirely on guidelines that you can understand and agree with. Moderation on other subs (no clue about this one) is so heinously biased it makes them unusable. Very common on political and news oriented subs....
- deleted 10mo ago
  [deleted]

GCUMstlyHarmls 10mo ago

I read [Unauthorized Bread (exerpt) by Doctoro](https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/01/unauthorized-bread-a-near-future-tale-of-refugees-and-sinister-iot-appliances/ https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/01/unauthorized-bread-a-...) this year which was pretty approachable read on the topic. Not severely interesting or mind blowing if you're already here hopefully but did make me wonder how I could sneak it into my mums reading list.

LtWorf 10mo ago
I borrowed from the library last month. It was thought provoking and I think it's aimed at younger people than myself.

jamesbelchamber 10mo ago

We really need some legislation that outlaws this sort of control over devices we buy. If someone wants to install an advert app on their fridge (I assume in exchange for money) then fair enough. If I buy a tv I shouldn't just have to accept that, now or in the future, the manufacturer will sell advertising on it.

duskdozer 10mo ago
Already done! You agreed to it in the Terms and Conditions - you did read them, right? But yeah I agree with you, there needs to be a way for people to get away from ads without relying on the existence of some benevolent alternate company
- moffkalast 10mo ago
  Despite what the average multinational will have you believe, terms and conditions usually don't hold up in court. If they write some illegal bullshit into it, it's just that, bullshit.
  - duskdozer 10mo ago
    Sure, but that depends on the thing actually being illegal first. Genuine question - how often in practice are terms and conditions successfully challenged? My thought is that companies like that would be able to drain plaintiffs out before it getting that far very often
    - hn8726 10mo ago
      And how often in practice are terms and conditions attempted to be enforced in the first place? No need to challenge them if you can ignore them
      - ImPostingOnHN 10mo ago
        If ignoring them is your only option, and challenging them would fail, we would expect to see a lack of challenging them. Which we do. Unless there's a solid track record of people consistently challenging them and winning, we can assume, based on bayesian priors, that most people cannot. Which makes sense: court costs money.

ares623 10mo ago

Careless people

emsign 10mo ago

I knew using ad blockers is good for your mental health but this is plain creepy and unfair. Especially when advertisers know more and more about you as more and more everyday items are spying on you and serve you ads without any additional core functionality. Appliances don't get better, they are getting creepier to increase the return of investment for the manufacturers. The schizophrenics are just more sensitive to this enshittification of everyday items because they are quick to assume deliberate agency in chaotic events where there is none. But this is changing, for everybody. The problem is today you can't really tell anymore whether this "Carol" the ad was addressing is the advertiser knowing that it's your name or just a random "clever" reference to a character in the TV show, I mean even after getting the resolution that it's the latter, nobody can be sure if this excludes the former, like the algorithm decided to send Carol an ad about a show with a Carol in it. It's not good to have to make up your mind about it even when you are not suffering from schizophrenia. It's annoying, it's intrusive, it wastes your time and ruins your day. And it makes you hate your new tech, makes you hate tech in general, because it's a big "fuck you we can do what we want with you now" towards the customers. No wonder Luddites are making a come back, that's just self-defense.

ainiriand 10mo ago
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they are not after you.
- balamatom 10mo ago
  In fact, they're after you for being so paranoid.

bell-cot 10mo ago

IANAL, but could the ADA [1] or equivalent laws be applied to such a situation? If it was up to a jury, the creepy ads might not get much sympathy. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americans_with_Disabilities_Act_of_1990 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americans_with_Disabilities_Ac...

partomniscient 10mo ago
Given the situation occurred in the UK, I doubt it.
- srmarm 10mo ago
  I think The Equality Act 2010 would be the UK equivalent. No idea whether it would cover this - might be a stretch.

renewiltord 10mo ago

[flagged]

ferrouswheel 10mo ago
Are you insane? I'm not sure you'd pass your own test. Haha
- renewiltord 10mo ago
  I thoroughly enjoyed this response :D
foxglacier 10mo ago
I know that sounds like a horrible violation of individual freedom, but we already treat children and cognitively impaired elderly people that way. Maybe to graduate from childhood to adult-who-can-sign-contracts, have sexual relationships, vote, etc. everyone has to pass a test, and it's retested periodically in case you regress.
- razingeden 10mo ago
  And yet no barriers or means test for Samsung? if its harmful in some way to some person the “obvious” solution is to means test the entire population for their competency to vote or have sex? i dont own a samsung fridge, but okay sure. sign me up for some weird battery of invasive tests and write me out of life so Samsung can sell hardware and ads. maybe samsung can even serve me some personalized ads based on my test results. everyone in big tech is guided by “CAN we do this?” and never “SHOULD we do this?” and theyre totally unaccountable for all of it. it doesnt matter who it hurts or how it hurts them. thats why they they do whatever they want. and if something goes wrong, hey i know! lets just turn the screws even tighter on every man woman and child so Samsung can do whatever it wants. Id tell you to go hell but it sounds like we’re already all in it. im sorry if thats rude but it actually was the most polite thing i could come up with.
  - renewiltord 10mo ago

bfkwlfkjf 10mo ago

Stallman was right.

josfredo 10mo ago
Sometimes you don’t need a Stallman to be right.
- balamatom 10mo ago
  Yet there is a Stallman anyway.
YurgenJurgensen 10mo ago
Stallman didn’t even conceive of this threat. Would it be any better if it was an open source dystopian mind-control machine?
- pwdisswordfishy 10mo ago
  Open source, as in corporate outsourcing software maintenance to free labour? No. Free software, as in four freedoms? Yes, because you could install your own firmware that doesn't show advertisements. That's what the whole GPLv3 debacle was about after all. Stallman may have not imagined this specific scenario, but he absolutely did conceive of owner-hostile software that could not be replaced.
  - YurgenJurgensen 10mo ago
    You could, but would most people? Most people voluntarily subject themselves to garbage adware-ridden SmartTVs even though this is a problem you can solve with a £12 dongle and no software installation at all. If the humble HDMI cable defeats the average person’s technical ability, what difference would it make if they could technically install their own firmware?
    - adamwong246 10mo ago

globular-toast 10mo ago

The gut reaction of too many geeks is "I can't believe you'd install a smart fridge in your home". But we need to think about this differently. Imagine if vehicles had no mandatory safety checks. How many people know anything about car safety? You'd get people barrelling down the highway with broken suspension, bald tyres or worse. We are the professionals. It's our responsibility to keep the public safe and stop shit like this happening. The software engineers who implemented this at Samsung should be struck off. Well, we could start by having something to be struck off from. I'm done with assuming individual developers will be scrupulous. We need real consequences to come from higher up. It's way past the point that this is fucking with people's lives.

duskdozer 10mo ago
It also falls apart over when more and more products become "smart" to the point where you can't really even buy one without things like this, like TVs now or cars for that matter. I'm dreading the day where I end up forced to watch an ad before starting my car. I do think some kind of ethics training/education/licensing/organization is long overdue for software devs.
ErroneousBosh 10mo ago
> You'd get people barrelling down the highway with broken suspension, bald tyres or worse. You have this in most of the US, and people rail against any attempt to bring it in because they're frightened that garages will not give them their cars back if they think it's got something wrong with it. I've seen people driving cars in the US that you wouldn't even be able to get a scrapyard to take in the UK, they'd tell you to just sweep it into a bag and put it in the recycling.
chickensong 10mo ago
Real consequences from higher up... for ads on a fridge? Corporate execs only care about money. Engineers aren't going to get themselves fired every time someone asks for a feature they don't agree with. Government? We don't need more nanny laws. What we need is for people to think for themselves. The powers that be aren't going to save you from all the bad things. Call out the bad things to educate people, and vote with your wallet.

metalman 10mo ago

it should read, "Schizophenic correctly diagnoses societies ongoing pschcotic episode through the phenominon of refrigerator advertising"

Jordan-117 10mo ago

"I just saw something incredibly cool! A big floating ball that lit up with every color in the rainbow, plus some new ones that were so beautiful I fell to my knees and cried." "Was it out in front of Discount Shoe Outlet?" "Yeah..." "They have a college kid wear that to attract customers."

duskdozer 10mo ago
"Didn't you have ads in the 20th century?" "Well, sure, but not in our dreams. Only on TV and radio. And in magazines and movies and at ball games, on buses and milk cartons and T-shirts and bananas and written on the sky. But not in dreams. No, sir-ee!"

Lapsa 10mo ago

[flagged]

saltysalt 10mo ago

Everyday we take one step closer to a PKD envisioned future.

gilleain 10mo ago
> “I’ll sue you,” the door said as the first screw fell out. Joe Chip said, “I’ve never been sued by a door. But I guess I can live through it.” From Ubik
- saltysalt 10mo ago
  That scene is exactly what I had in mind :-) Such a wonderful book.
- chickensong 10mo ago
  One of my favorite PKD novels. Thanks for the reminder of it!
madaxe_again 10mo ago
Better tip the smart door, never know what’ll happen if there’s a fire someday. Speaking of, better tip the toaster.
- saltysalt 10mo ago
  The Internet of [spiteful] Things.

Lapsa 10mo ago

there hasn't been a single schizophrenia diagnosis for a born blind person

edm0nd 10mo ago
whoa, that's a really neat and cool fact. I never knew this. for the curious, https://www.healthcentral.com/condition/schizophrenia/blindness-and-schizophrenia https://www.healthcentral.com/condition/schizophrenia/blindn...
balamatom 10mo ago
Wonder why (I don't wonder why) I remember when borderline/schizoid fren saw some stuff made by one of the first generative models released to the public, Deep Dream. I hadda smack that laptop shut, my fren froze catatonic from looking at those dog-shaped landscapes
mlrtime 10mo ago
What is the probability of being born blind? What is the probability of having schizophrenia? What is the probability of both? What is the probability of both + having resources to have it diagnosed?
- quesera 10mo ago
  Some quick numbers: 1/2500 .. What is the probability of being born blind? 1/100 .. What is the probability of having schizophrenia? 1/250000* .. What is the probability of both? 1/250000* .. What is the probability of both + having resources to have it diagnosed? [*] Assuming genetic blindness (born this way) and schizophrenia (elevated genetic risk) are not somehow inversely linked. So, in the US: 340MM people -> 1360 born-blind people who would develop schizophrenia Reduce that by half or so, since schizophrenia tends to emerge in or after adolescence. And since it may be confusable at older ages with other brain health issues (is this true?). So call it 700 people in the US alone. If it is in fact zero, that is significant! I chose the US because 100% people will have adequate access to this level of medical care. A formal diagnosis is not the same thing as access, but a born-blind person either has parents/family, or has a state warden with access to care. This is also true in many many other countries, but certainly not all. The US has 4.1% of the world population. Figure 50% of the world does not have this level of medical access. It's probably less than that, but maybe not. This suggests about 10,000 people worldwide, living today, who would be affected, and in an environment where they would be diagnosed.

GaryBluto 10mo ago

When I first saw somebody complain about the Pluribus smart fridge ad I immediately knew something like this was going to happen. How did Apple/Samsung not think this through?

edm0nd 10mo ago
if you read the entire reddit thread, OPs sisters name actually was Carol. That's why it wigged her out so much and triggered her schizophrenia to kick in I suppose.
- GaryBluto 10mo ago
  I know, that's what I originally thought.
sva_ 10mo ago
They probably do not care if they're not legally liable.

xioxox 10mo ago

Although adverts on the fridge are absolutely terrible, is this genuine? Here's a reddit post some time before that suggesting the scenario: https://old.reddit.com/r/assholedesign/comments/1ow6cpu/apparently_my_samsung_fridge_has_ads_now/nonrm5s/ https://old.reddit.com/r/assholedesign/comments/1ow6cpu/appa...

GaryBluto 10mo ago
Just because someone suggested a possible scenario could happen and it then did happen isn't all that suspicious to me.
- xioxox 10mo ago
  Of course it might be genuine, but there's also a history of r/LegalAdviceUK getting a number of creative writing exercises. See this post: https://old.reddit.com/r/LegalAdviceUK/comments/1loyctr/ragebait_astroturfing_misinformation_heres_some/ https://old.reddit.com/r/LegalAdviceUK/comments/1loyctr/rage...
  - JimDabell 10mo ago
    Why use the “creative writing exercise” euphemism that obscures the dishonesty? Call them liars, fakes, frauds, or whatever.
    - mlrtime 10mo ago
      Because it's internet + social media. You should assume 60% of it is made up, every time. People are either saying things they know to be untrue, or things they think are true but or not.
    - Gracana 10mo ago
      Because it’s not that serious.
  - bityard 10mo ago
    I used to follow a few personal finance and FIRE subs. Pretty much all of them had surprising number of creative writing exercises too: "I just inherited $10 million from a dead relative I never knew, what should I do?" Or: "I sold my online business for $37 million, is this enough to retire on?" These daydreamers always create fresh throwaway accounts and usually never come back to answer clarifying questions. If they do, their answers are vague and unhelpful.

shlip 10mo ago

Every time I see an article on HN about a "smart" device doing shitty things, my first thought is why would someone (especially from this crowd, who's supposed to be enlightened about the state of enshittification of tech) buy any IoS device in the first place ? What good could you expect from an appliance that's permanently communicating with its non-giving a f*ck about users, profit driven, immoral and unethical mothership ? Would you really expect your life to be better after buying such a product ?

lazide 10mo ago
The real fun one - most rental places, the landlord buys/provides the fridge.
- YurgenJurgensen 10mo ago
  Are we at ad-supported rental apartments yet? “Sorry, it’s in the rental contract that we’re not allowed to turn off the TV or cover it up.”
  - defrost 10mo ago
    On the double-plus-good side there's often a corner of the room where the TV can't see you . . .
- account42 10mo ago
  Is that really the case? Even with furbished kitchens the fridge is often something the tenant owns IME and rentals with unfurnished kitchens are not that uncommon here.
RobotToaster 10mo ago
There's an old joke that a tech enthusiast will have "smart" everything in their house, while someone who works in tech keeps a shotgun in case their 10 year old laser printer makes a funny noise...
- 10mo ago

keepamovin 10mo ago

If modern ad tech and future holographic display technology makes schizophrenic symptoms indistinguishable from regular waking consciousness in our Bitchun society...does that make us all crazy? or all sane?

gaigalas 10mo ago

This is obviously reddit fiction.

yokoprime 10mo ago

If there is one appliance in my house that does not need a LCD screen and «smart» features, it’s my fridge. It was installed maybe 6 years ago, I adjusted some temperature settings and I’ve never touched the dials again.

eimrine 10mo ago
It does not need neither screens nor chips, one knob mounted to thermo relay is self-descriptive.
account42 10mo ago
Need might be a bit much but I think I would benefit from the fridge tracking expiry dates and reminding me to use up groceries before they go bad. Having a place in the kitchen to show digital recipes is also not useless. I don't trust any tech company to provide this without fucking it up with ads or other dark patterns though so I too still have a screen-less fridge.

zerof1l 10mo ago

I don't understand why people willingly pay thousands for these fridges. Just buy a regular fridge without the screen.

Kirth 10mo ago
While you still can..
eimrine 10mo ago
I searched for this comment for a long time, it should be the first one.
sallveburrpi 10mo ago
I recently tried this for a new TV - buying a regular “non-smart” TV without the internet features without being “AI-enabled” (whatever the fuck that means). It wasn’t possible - there was literally no TV available that didn’t have a small computer built in to connect to the internet and send all my usage data somewhere. I probably have to find a second hand one somewhere or just continue to live without one. Not saying that it’s the same with fridges - but who knows a few years down the line it might be…
- deleted 10mo ago
  [deleted]
- charlesabarnes 10mo ago
  I never understand this type of refrain. Why connect the TV to the Internet? I have yet to run into a TV that doesn't work entirely offline at any pricepoint
  - sallveburrpi 10mo ago
    What is the point of a smart TV though?
    - deleted 10mo ago
      [deleted]

cracki 10mo ago

Time to ban all adverts everywhere. I'm not the only one who is fed up with ads. I don't see ads, thanks to ad blocking tech in browsers and smartphones. Any time that happens to fail and I get to endure an ad, I am amazed that regular people without ad blocking tech can endure this onslaught. The time to negotiate a "middle ground" is long past. Let's not even entertain that idea. An acceptable middle ground could have been designated areas for ads, which you have to seek out to see them. Think of the Yellow Pages. Ad companies need to be reined in. They cannot control themselves. They are lobbying against all limits and controls. The only solution is to eradicate ads entirely and to make sure that anyone who gets that idea will never get it again.

mikkupikku 10mo ago
Legal ads in product catalogues only. Product catalogues are actually useful and nobody is subjected to them unless they chose to seek one out and pick it up willingly.
- duskdozer 10mo ago
  I'm glad to hear someone else come to this as the solution for ads.
- nish__ 10mo ago
  Wait, what? I'm confused. Is the entire product catalogue considered an ad? Or do you mean parts of a product catalogue can contain adverts? I'd argue a product catalogue is not advertising at all.
  - mikkupikku 10mo ago
    I consider each product listing in a catalogues to be ads, or perhaps the whole catalogues is one big aggregate ad. Either way, I'm fine with them. Product catalogues are mostly innocuous and usually provide more empirical product information than other forms of advertisement.
    - 10mo ago

ginko 10mo ago

I simply can't fathom why anyone would spend extra money on a "smart" fridge. Let alone one that shows ads. Why would you even want one of those?

SideburnsOfDoom 10mo ago

FYI, the slogan ""WE'RE SORRY WE UPSET YOU, CAROL" on a yellow background is from the Apple TV Show "Pluribus" (Or "PLUR1BUS"). It would be an ad for that show. It is indeed creepy at times. The main character is called "Carol". As also, it seems is the person who saw it here.

randyrand 10mo ago

Obviously made up... This ad did the rounds last week and people were talking in the comments about this scenario. Sure it could've happened, but odds are this is just made up.

commandersaki 10mo ago
Been there and absolutely can see this happening, it is sometimes a prodromal symptom called a 'sign of reference' [1]. I recall during my first psychosis episode thinking a TNT logistics van contained a bomb and was being used as a terrorist vehicle to blow up a building (or maybe at the time I think it could have been targeting myself directly). Also, in that same episode, the train stations in Sydney were being plastered on every possible space and surface with high contrast white on blue posters that said "HEY TOSSER!" [2]; it was an anti littering ad campaign bringing some levity to the situation. My mind was overwhelmed by both its alerting nature and the fact that everywhere I would turn I'd see a poster, and in my infirmity it felt like someone was pointing a finger an inch from my forehead arresting me to say I should stop being a tosser in the derogatory (Australian slang) sense (though my mind was contending with the many multiple meanings). [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideas_and_delusions_of_reference https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideas_and_delusions_of_referen... [2]: https://imgur.com/a/wyVDNN4 https://imgur.com/a/wyVDNN4
stainablesteel 10mo ago
this seems reasonable to me, i don't have schizophrenia but i'm pretty sure i'd start stabbing a fridge if I ever saw it give me an advertisement
- tyleo 10mo ago
  Same. I’m pretty stable but just looking at pictures of that ad in the comments I felt my heart-BMP raise. It isn’t just the fact that it’s an ad. The intense black and yellow is unsettling with strong ‘warning’ vibes. Here’s a picture for folks wondering: https://www.reddit.com/r/assholedesign/comments/1ow6cpu/apparently_my_samsung_fridge_has_ads_now/ https://www.reddit.com/r/assholedesign/comments/1ow6cpu/appa...

unyttigfjelltol 10mo ago

Manufacturers for 100 years didn’t try to wrap their fridges in ads, or tune the compressor sound to a commercial jingle. They sold mostly honest products to cool your food efficiently. But when they add an LED display and Internet connection, suddenly they forget about cooling your food and impulsively add a bunch of adversarial functionality, meaning functions that monetize the consumer rather than keeping the food cool. It’s like the Internet advertising ecosystem is a virus intent on infecting anything and anyone with an Internet connection, making them do bizarre customer-hostile things they never would have done otherwise.

gregoriol 10mo ago
You are way off: it's just about money. For a long time, making appliances was an ok business, making good stuff, selling them, factories running, employment, margins ok, ... and there was progress/innovation to do. Now that there is not much to update or innovate with, and companies have already squeezed workers in Bengladesh to the max, the only current innovation and additional money source are "connected" and "ads".
- MangoToupe 10mo ago
  I don't see any contradiction between the two takes; I suspect capital pressure will force us into an inhumane dystopia where baseline existence is miserable, and quiet rational thought is a luxury.
- account42 10mo ago
  > and there was progress/innovation to do Also cost-cutting to increase those margins. The ads are a natural extension of that.
RataNova 10mo ago
Exactly. Nobody ever asked for a fridge that doubles as a billboard
SoftTalker 10mo ago
Not really true. I've found coupons in new appliances. I've found detergent samples in a new dishwasher. That's advertising.

toxicplanes1 10mo ago

[dead]

arpcodes 10mo ago

the end of HN when reddit fanfic reaches the frontpage

sallveburrpi 10mo ago
the end of HN when every comment is parroting the same thing >implying HN was ever good

arpcodes 10mo ago

made an account just to note that when reddit fanfic is reaching the front-page, we might be on the downslope and it's sad

bigyabai 10mo ago
Your concern is not that refrigerators display ads, or that Apple is goading schizoaffective people, but that Reddit is lying? You're right, this website is headed on the down slope and your comment proves it perfectly.
- venturecruelty 10mo ago
  Hard to get a man to understand something, dot dot dot.

neomantra 10mo ago

Next up: <blink> tags on fridge triggers seizures Back in the day we asked webmasters to run their web sites through Bobby for accessibility checks. I am curious if any LLM work like this is being done. If it were really a smart fridge, it would moderate its users content appropriately. Eg I don’t want haram ads, don’t freak me out, I’m color blind.

api 10mo ago

Don’t buy appliances with anything but a small screen. Any large screen on any appliance will be used to show ads. If not now then eventually. It’s also a gimmick, and gimmicks on things like appliances and cars are red flags for poor quality. Appliances in particular are best when simple and designed for their function. “Feature” means “thing that will break.”

da_grift_shift 10mo ago

HN baited by karma farmers once again. Here's the /r/assholedesign post: https://old.reddit.com/r/assholedesign/comments/1ow6cpu/apparently_my_samsung_fridge_has_ads_now/ https://old.reddit.com/r/assholedesign/comments/1ow6cpu/appa... It shows a webpage with an ad being displayed in the browser app. How do we know? Full-screen ads don't show on the cover screen (home screen). Here's the investigation: https://9to5google.com/samsung-smart-fridge-ads-how-to-turn-off/ https://9to5google.com/samsung-smart-fridge-ads-how-to-turn-... >Any ad shown would be limited to the cover screen widget, which displays news, weather, and calendar events. >The ad shown in the Reddit photo is of the fridge’s Samsung Internet app. Through that, an ad seems to have shown up organically through a third-party website. Here's the docs that talk about ads on the cover screen: https://www.samsung.com/us/support/answer/ANS10007562/ https://www.samsung.com/us/support/answer/ANS10007562/ It's easy for ragebait to short-circuit your critical thinking skills. Don't let Redditards like /u/Shellnanigans get their fix.

dqv 10mo ago
Well they might want to produce some photos or screenshots of what it actually looks like when it displays ads. So far, they are only telling us what it doesn't look like, which doesn't instill much confidence. It should have been pretty easy for them to say "and here's what it actually looks like btw: [photo.jpg] [screenshot.png]". They didn't do that though. Why might that be?
- da_grift_shift 10mo ago
  Here's an actual Samshit fridge cover screen with the new ad widget: https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Samsung-fridge-ad.jpg.webp https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/... Here's a GIF of it rotating through the modes: https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Family-Hub-Advertising-Alpha-Pilot-GIF.gif https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/... Here's the source article: https://www.androidauthority.com/samsung-smart-fridge-ad-update-rollout-3610402/ https://www.androidauthority.com/samsung-smart-fridge-ad-upd... Now where do I get my 10% commission on /u/Shellnanigans's 67,135 internet points?

efilife 10mo ago

this post is a meme (or an attempt to shed light at the problem) referencing a video by louis rossmann who foreshadows that something like this could hypothetically happen

Lambdanaut 10mo ago

As a schizotypal person, I'm unsure how more people aren't exhibiting paranoid schizophrenic symptoms in this wildly untrustworthy digital age. Yesterday a good friend reached out to me on a new phone number to wish me happy holidays, she shortly afterwards asked me to donate to a fund to help her sick cat. Even though this person had a similar typing style, the unrecognized phone number made me feel paranoid that it may be an LLM attempting to get money from me in an automated scam, so I made the choice to call my friend to get more evidence via voice. It turned out to be my friend(or an even more elaborate ruse using voice capture and mass data-mining tech, but that seemed extremely unlikely, at least for another couple years). My brother had full on shizpphrenia, and would often call family members asking them to provide evidence that they are who they say they are and not government robots. It was an obvious delusion when he was alive, but now that we're in a world where that sort of evidence-gathering is no longer extreme, paranoia is the new normal. Our usual safeguards of identity are breaking down, and you can bet that large corporations with an eye on the coin are going to swoop in to establish new, more secure methods of identification.

ghc 10mo ago
Society, in a sense, is highly dependent on trustworthy interactions. Credit, ownership transfers, banking, etc. all depend on trust. If we go back to only being able to trust in-person interactions, we'll be stepping back to a financial system from over 100 years ago. Because of this, I believe that solutions will be developed. Nothing is 100% fool-proof, but the government depends on a solution being found.
citizenpaul 10mo ago
>swoop in to establish new, more secure methods of identification. This is already being done. However it is being done in backroom deals to make sure that the individual has no control over their identity only the corporations. You are not who you say you are, you are what a corporation decides you are. Plaid is a huge player in this space.

earsay 10mo ago

[dead]

Pikamander2 10mo ago
The YouTube equivalent is SponsorBlock: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/sponsorblock-for-youtube/mnjggcdmjocbbbhaepdhchncahnbgone?hl=en https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/sponsorblock-for-yo... https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/sponsorblock/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/sponsorblock/ And the smart fridge equivalent is either PiHole, or.. not buying a smart fridge.

nish__ 10mo ago

File suit.

daggersandscars 10mo ago

If you have a router you control, many routers allow you to take away internet access from a device while keeping it on your local network. Some (all?) Asus routers can do this from their UI. This won’t help with devices that require 24x7 internet access, but it’s great for things you want to access the local network but don’t trust not to send info to a third party. (TVs, music amps with built in streaming, home surveillance systems [1], etc.) Also handy for briefly turning on Internet access for software updates or one time activation. [1] while making a surveillance system available online safely and with software you control isn’t hard, it’s not trivial. Turning Internet access off for your cameras without a plan will mean you can’t monitor your home or get alerts when away from your local network.

cyberlimerence 10mo ago

Reads like something out of Philip K. Dick’s writing. Fridges with ads. Talking doors.

barfoure 10mo ago

Yeah… she’s not wrong. If you want to put an end to this you’ll either need to boycott products, make your own, or get something serious passed to abolish a good chunk of ads. This industry is loaded with money and they reinforce their own (see: ads on fridges) so good luck. It’s a tough battle. Oh, and there are no roadway ads in Vermont.

RataNova 10mo ago

I just hope the sister gets some peace and that her doctors take this as an environmental trigger

kyledrake 10mo ago

I inherited a Samsung fridge when I moved to a new place, it was a terrible fridge with serious mechanical flaws. The deicer broke, causing a constant stream of leaking water in the fridge. The French door middle component hinge was cheap plastic that broke and I had to replace it, then it broke again and I had to replace it again, then it broke again. I finally gave up and replaced the fridge. Recommendation threads on Reddit usually begin with "anything but Samsung". They seem designed to be made cheap and hit the lowest price point with consumers that don't want to spend a lot more on something they don't really care about, so I'm not surprised to learn that ads are a part of their strategy. But also, why do fridges need to connect to the internet?

eYrKEC2 10mo ago
You just described my samsung fridge.
- kyledrake 10mo ago
  Solidarity, friend. I hope you're able to keep it working on decent order. If you give up, I replaced it with a Whirlpool and it seems fine.

deleted 10mo ago

[deleted]

jader201 10mo ago

I know this is the sort of story HN would love to be true (and to be clear, I think ads on appliances are Black Mirror level stuff), but this — like most things on Reddit — is made up. [1] This story, while fun to discuss, should be flagged, and not on the FP of HN. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46171868 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46171868

grayhatter 10mo ago
Someone predicted this exact thing is your evidence it's fiction? How much meaningful experience do you have with psychosis and mental illness?
- jader201 10mo ago
  That thread goes into how Samsung has confirmed that this ad can’t show up like it did [1]. There are many comments in that thread debunking this. Which is why I linked the whole thread, not a single comment. When something posts something on Reddit that sounds far fetched (fun to believe, but unlikely), we (the HN community) should default to skepticism/critical thinking, rather than assuming it’s true without evidence that it is. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46173338 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46173338
  - grayhatter 10mo ago
    > When something posted on Reddit that sounds far fetched (fun to believe, but unlikely), we should default to skepticism/critical thinking, rather than assuming it’s true without evidence that it is. That's my point. This doesn't sound at all far fetched if you've spent time with people recovering from psychosis with visual hallucinations. I'm normally a very skeptical person, and while I both agree claims require evidence. I don't find the comment thread from before very compelling evidence. Fake or not, I do believe that an ad with the text from the troll image would show up on a smart fridge, I don't trust Samsung to tell the truth^1, and importantly the minimal description from the linked post describes an experience similar to one I've seen before working with a patient. (But from a print ad.) Even if this exac is fiction, this kinda stuff actually happens. Perhaps I'm wrong, to believe it's plausible, but dismissing it outright is a mistake. You don't want to acknowledge hallucinations are real, but more important than that, you don't want to tell someone that they're lying without positive proof. edit ^1: I read that exactly prior to reading your reply, and yes I do agree that explanation seems to be correct; that wasn't what I was basing my take on. i.e. true or not it's less important to my original objection. Or I find it plausible than even a small advert would result in the same event.

tonymet 10mo ago

I'm no prude, but I'm finding horror, pharma & sex ads to be incredibly disturbing in how they are presented. Google TV takes over my wall with moderately graphic horror movie ads. My family members aren't comfortable with horror and they have no way to use the TV otherwise. It's unsetting in the middle of the night. And graphic pharma ads for stomach turning skin disorders and other inappropriate disorders play even during casual, family content. And most of the sexual content is not family friendly -- even I find it awkward to have on the wall, especially when my parents visit. These devices used to be ours with some level of control, and now they are all remotely managed to present awful content at all hours

ashoeafoot 10mo ago
[dead]
willidiots 10mo ago
Google TV showing ads on the home screen convinced me to buy an Apple TV. Had to go back to a set-top box - to use the same apps I have built into the TV - just because Apple won't spam me with this shit.
- wlesieutre 10mo ago
  Apple won't spam you with this shit yet Rumors are that Apple Maps advertising is incoming soon
  - tonymet 10mo ago
    the only way they will continue with AppleTV (TV+) is to put ads. they haven't gained enough subscribers to keep that business unit solvent.
- tonymet 10mo ago
  It's a good tip, I may end up doing that. I'm hoping that Apple has better standards for third party streaming apps (just yesterday I made a Ask HN post about how terrible they are)

randomNumber7 10mo ago

I recently downloaded an app to use my smartphone screen as a reading light. So a simple app that lets you control the color and brightness of the screen. You only find this with adds on the play store and it shares your data with 3. parties as well as permanently showing an add banner. This isn't progress, it's broken.

zuminator 10mo ago
I found a couple of ad free apps within seconds. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.wearefamily.readinglamp https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.wearefamil... https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jp.co.vixen.nightvisionlight https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jp.co.vixen.ni... Is there a certain must-have feature you're looking for?
- randomNumber7 10mo ago
  Great, thank you. How do you query in a way to find the ad free apps?

varispeed 10mo ago

These targeted ads are incredibly harmful when you have to take care of someone with psychosis. They think that someone who is listening to them is sending them "messages" through ads and that feeds into paranoia. Unfortunately it is not possible to reason in such situations with the person and any attempt to explain tracking is met with hostility. I really wish regulators stopped being corrupt, naive or both and outright made it illegal. There is no upside for tracking of any kind for consumers.

roughly 10mo ago

I know this isn’t Just a Samsung problem, but it’s sure not Not a Samsung problem either. Samsung’s taken the early-00’s Sony crown of most anti-consumer company out there - don’t buy Samsung.

lifeisstillgood 10mo ago

In the golden era of advertising (don’t really know but say before the iPhone) there was no “opt-out”. If you wanted to watch Lucille Ball, rich or poor you had to sit through the ads. If you wanted to read the New York Times article, rich or poor, you had to turn the full page ad over. Today that’s gone - you can for a fee never see an advert again. And that fee is easier to pay if you are rich, and harder if poor. And so more and more “traditional” advertising will become aggressive and aimed at both lower income audience and more scammy products (because you are selling to the poorest you cannot beat costs eventually). And advertising will stop being about “brand” (which are naturally less aggressive and focused on closing) and more about the last click to sale. We are already seeing this world take shape, as “influencers” become the way to reach those who have paid to stop all other advertising, and why travel influencers are head of that pack. Ultimately this is about design of our public spaces. We rightly celebrate architects, civil engineers and their sponsors who create enjoyable and beneficial built areas - we have still to get a hold of the digital public spaces. While Times Square has a quality of its own, living there permanently would have mental health issues for most of us. And in the end, positive public spaces are associated with the words paternalism, socialism, public good and none with Toll, extraction, rentierism. The arguments against ads are arguments for paternalism of government control for a better life for us all.

hobbitstan 10mo ago

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qwertox 10mo ago

I wish ads were allowed to only state facts, and that in a non-misleading context.

account42 10mo ago
No, scrap the Ministry for Truth as well - those are just as much about manipulation as companies wanting you to buy shit you don't need.

beedeebeedee 10mo ago

These companies have no decency. Putting ads on a fridge! They’ve already invaded our phones and computers, and almost everywhere else. This needs to stop

Animats 10mo ago

At least the fridge didn't play the video version.[1] [1] https://www.youtube.com/shorts/rzmFNVBIfCQ https://www.youtube.com/shorts/rzmFNVBIfCQ

offmycloud 10mo ago

Reddit used to be free for anyone to view without logging in, but now I get "Your request has been blocked due to a network policy." Sorry, but I'm not turning my ad blocker off.

dabinat 10mo ago

I was in a car accident a few years ago that triggered my pre-existing PTSD, so it was a very rough experience. This experience was made worse by the fact that my insurer apparently sold the fact I had been in a crash to third-parties. I could not go anywhere on the internet without seeing personal injury ads, which often featured gratuitous pictures of crashes. This felt incredibly creepy and made a bad experience much worse.

u8vov8 10mo ago
On the day Melissa Hortman and her husband were killed, I started getting Youtube ads for silencers and tactical gear. I guess it follows that people were searching for those sort topics then and I fit some cohort (probably "angry young male"), but it was very unnerving. Now Youtube mostly shows me ads for fake AI generated products and other scams.

hartator 10mo ago

The actual ad: https://www.reddit.com/r/assholedesign/s/YD4vBNXfLY https://www.reddit.com/r/assholedesign/s/YD4vBNXfLY Too bad for the backslash, it’s a great show.

bigyabai 10mo ago
Apple's ad department hasn't exactly been knocking them out of the park lately.

nelox 10mo ago

[flagged]

teekert 10mo ago

I love technology but avoid all the smart stuff because it's all shit, all spyware, all will eventually show ads. Its a perversion of something that could have been so nice. I have Philips Hue lights, it started out great, now every time I open that app it slaps an ad in my face. I paid hundreds of euros for that system. Never again.

djaouen 10mo ago

I, for one, welcome our new fridge overlords. Might I also remind them that I can be useful in rounding up, hoarding, if you will, other humans for fridge-related activities thanks to my 39-year experience with ice, frozen fruits, etc.

justinhj 10mo ago

This story and the discussion here highlights how useful X's community notes can be

laincide 10mo ago

im glad the minds here figured it to be fake as well. makes me have a little bit of hope for this world.

wlonkly 10mo ago

It's a pretty big coincidence that the thing that someone mentioned in passing about in this earlier post[1] happened to come true some days later, from a 4-day-old Reddit account. The legal advice subreddits are, unfortunately, often the target of some creative writing exercises. I feel like this is probably one, but acknowledge we'll never know for sure. Either way it's a terrible ad and fridges shouldn't have ads. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/assholedesign/comments/1ow6cpu/apparently_my_samsung_fridge_has_ads_now/ https://www.reddit.com/r/assholedesign/comments/1ow6cpu/appa...

sizzle 10mo ago

This is a fabricated story/made up post, see here: https://www.reddit.com/r/assholedesign/comments/1ow6cpu/apparently_my_samsung_fridge_has_ads_now/ https://www.reddit.com/r/assholedesign/comments/1ow6cpu/appa... “EDIT 2: Hello, I am the original poster of the carol AD image from a month ago. I am a male from America and my name is not Carol. The story about a Schizophrenic woman named carol was most likely fabricated from the 3rd top comment on this post. Thanks!” Fake Post: https://www.reddit.com/r/LegalAdviceUK/comments/1pc7999/my_schizophrenic_sister_hospitalised_herself/ https://www.reddit.com/r/LegalAdviceUK/comments/1pc7999/my_s...

Telaneo 10mo ago

Given what that ad said, I can hardly blame her. That must have been horrifying. Imagine if advertisers were directly responsible for cleaning up after themselves. For newspapers, they'd need to recycle the equivelent amount of paper their ads take up in all papers distributed. For ads on digital devices, an amount of processing power equivalent to the amount used to display them all would be user for a good cause (say folding). Or even just the same amount of electrical power used could be donated to a good cause. And for incidents like this, the company would be directly liable and bound to clean up. Or we could just ban them and also get rid of the long list of other downsides with ads.

dragonwriter 10mo ago

Í'm not sure we should be treating posts from Fun-Blueberry-2147 on r/LegalAdviceUK as actual news items.

SideburnsOfDoom 10mo ago
Agreed. What an actual journalist would do to make it a news item would be to start with tracking down and interviewing the actual people supposedly involved. Basic verification and fact checking, the grunt work of journalism. If it still exists, it's an endangered species.

replwoacause 10mo ago

This is fake and based on this earlier post to Reddit. Someone just karma farming https://www.reddit.com/r/assholedesign/s/FzGerVEUM8 https://www.reddit.com/r/assholedesign/s/FzGerVEUM8

stuaxo 10mo ago

It would be best to ban advertising on things that didn't advertise before, especially in people's homes where the effects can't be seen.

Xunie 10mo ago

On a very related note, I've been seeing a lot of what I coined as "schizophrenic design" in technology over the past 10 years. I started using this term to describe technology making you question yourself or the state of the system. Did I just get shadowbanned or does no one find my posts interesting? Am I shadowbanned or are my posts just deranked but still visible? Why does changing my profile picture trigger me to now require a phone to continue using the website? Did it mark me as a spambot or is this a normal sign up procedure? Did I get banned or did the group get deleted? Did I really forget to untick that "I'd like to receive marketing" checkbox? I can't really put my thumb on it. Now imagine this stuff with personalization and algorithms that know you're pregnant before you do. If anything, food intake is probably a very high quality signal on biological changes such as pregnancy. If you don't control the technology, the technology controls you.