There was a time when the family washing machine would last decades, with each breakdown fixed by the friendly local repair person. But those days are long gone.
Too many products are easier to throw away than fix—consumers deserve a 'right to repair'::There was a time when the family washing machine would last decades, with each breakdown fixed by the friendly local repair person. But those days are long gone.
No reason why this couldn’t be part of the “right to repair” — just have legislation that requires manufacturers to provide the source code (and adjacent deployment code) when a product goes out of support. You should have just as much right to fix code as physical hardware IMO.
Most security concerns nowadays are from users giving easy access to nefarious people. Usually easy passwords that can be collected from social media.
I'd also argue that corps like Microsoft, Google, Apple etc, can have far more nefarious intentions than some random hacker. Even if it's just data leaks. There is safety in a crowd. But when corps control the crowd... That's more of a reason to raise security concerns.
Maybe not with smart devices, but the automotive industry is headed the same way. I can repair a truck from the 70's and keep it running forever with the right parts, and even with some not-so right ones.
Nowadays for example, a tractor or truck from 2020 can't be repaired like that, they're installing systems that we-the user and even our mechanics can't access so you absolutely HAVE to take it back to them for repair. That's just wrong, these trucks have absolutely no need for software like this, it's only purpose is to prevent people from repairing things they've already paid for.