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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 18th, 2023

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  • The feature removal is nuanced thing worthy of more discussion. If Bosch had sold the dishwasher with a rinse button, and then disabled it via a firmware patch, I would be pissed as well. If Bosch are advertising a cloud only featured without making it clear its cloud only, also pissed. But Bosch shipping a dishwasher without a rinse button, that is less clear. Not all offline dishwashers have a rinse (I had an IKEA without a rinse cycle), so whether it is a standard feature or not is open for debate. It could be as simple as Bosch deciding to prioritise a difference cycle button instead? Features being removed from products is unfortunately nothing new, in all industries there are numerous examples, the only difference here is that with their app, Bosch can add it back in.

    Remote start is the main reason for having it networked. They also advertise it with home assistant/homekit/googlehome/alexa connectivity, which isnt for everyone, but for some, that is a sellable feature. So its not necessarily true that the app directly makes money, it could simply be a feature that helps sell more machines.

    Bosch are EU based, so any collected data should be protected by GDPR, although Im not EU, so they could be screwing me if they want. (I am also not a gdpr lawyer, so correct me if i am wrong here). I’d trust Bosch a lot more than a Chinese/US manufacturer, but I isolate it out of an abundance of paranoia.




  • No need for name calling.

    My dishwasher is completely fine without the cloud. Period. Full stop.

    There is no need to put it on the network, but if you want to, and are paranoid, you can connect it to an isolated network. If you dont want to, dont, and the dishwasher will work.

    There are valid use cases for the networking, beyond data collection, if you dont like it, dont use it. I do like it, and I’d rather support companies that do provide first party homeassistant support.







  • Vigilantism is bad because of the slippery slope issue. It starts with solid proof, and then slowly declines towards “vibes”, or fabrication of proof.

    “Beyond reasonable doubt” is the high bar set by the legal system, and they have the processes in place to ensure that the bar is met before declaring guilt (its not perfect, but it is so far the best system we have).

    If the proof is solid, and the law enforcement is functional, its better to hand it to them and let the system do its job. If the law enforcement isnt functional, vigilantism is all that is left, but you should strive to meet the “beyond reasonable doubt” bar. E.g is the evidence good, do you have the right person, could someone else be framing/manipulating the facts.







  • The rationalization they have given is that legally, they may have been seeking data all along, as some jurisdictions define it extremely loosely.

    For example, if you use their translation feature, they are sending the page your looking at (data) to a third party, which provides a benefit to Mozilla. Thats technically a sale in some laws, but most would agree that is acceptable given the user asked for it to happen.

    https://blog.mozilla.org/en/products/firefox/update-on-terms-of-use/

    The reason we’ve stepped away from making blanket claims that “We never sell your data” is because, in some places, the LEGAL definition of “sale of data” is broad and evolving. As an example, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) defines “sale” as the “selling, renting, releasing, disclosing, disseminating, making available, transferring, or otherwise communicating orally, in writing, or by electronic or other means, a consumer’s personal information by [a] business to another business or a third party” in exchange for “monetary” or “other valuable consideration.”

    I’m overall concerned with Mozilla, but not sure this is malicious yet. But definitely needs to be closely scrutinized.