Another Smart Device Manufacturer Is Altering The Deal

Stop me if you've heard this one before. A manufacturer releases a family of smart devices. Rather than lock you into their silo, they provide an API that allows any application to interface with their devices. Buyers are happy because they get to use their preferred applications. Later down the road, the manufacturer decides that they need more revenue and the best way to raise it without developing anything new is to push out a firmware update to their devices that disables API access and forces users into the manufacturer's silo. Now the manufacturer can double dip by making revenue off of their devices and selling their users' data to brokers. The manufacturer wins. The data brokers win. The only person not winning are the schmucks who purchased and used the devices.

My archive is littered with examples of this. It's a never ending cycle for smart devices. The latest offender is Echelon, a manufacturer of smart exercise equipment:

As explained in a Tuesday blog post by Roberto Viola, who develops the "QZ (qdomyos-zwift)" app that connects Echelon machines to third-party fitness platforms, like Peloton, Strava, and Apple HealthKit, the firmware update forces Echelon machines to connect to Echelon’s servers in order to work properly. A user online reported that as a result of updating his machine, it is no longer syncing with apps like QZ, and he is unable to view his machine's exercise metrics in the Echelon app without an Internet connection.

When you buy a device that the manufacturer can alter remotely whenever they desire, you don't own the device. You've simply paid the manufacturer for the privilege of using their device in the manner they see fit. If they decide later down the road that you're using it wrong, they can push a firmware update that make you use it "correctly."

Let me explain the equipment in my home gym. I have 18 Kettlebell Kings kettlebells (I bought them before the company turned to absolute shit, don't buy from them), two PowerBlock adjustable dumbbells, a pull up bar, an assortment of Rogue resistance bands, and the bottom of the barrel Sole elliptical. The elliptical is the only thing that has any electronics in it and its electronics are rudimentary. It doesn't connect to the Internet. I think it can connect to a phone over Bluetooth so you can play music on its shitty speakers, but I haven't tried it. I can confidently say that I own all of this equipment because it can't be altered by the manufacturer. If you're wondering how I collect and analyze my exercise data, I will point at my notebook. Yes, I record my exercise sessions with a pen in a paper notebook. It also cannot be remotely altered and the data stays local rather than being sucked up by a manufacturer who will sell it to data brokers.

I know my warnings will continue to go unheeded so you can expect posts about smart device manufacturers screwing over their customers for the foreseeable future.