Technology @beehaw.org tango_octogono @beehaw.org 1 yr. ago

Amazon accuses customer of racism & shuts down their smart home

We really do live in a boring dystopia

Home Automation @lemmy.world DarkFox @pawb.social 1 yr. ago

12 comments

Am I the only one who can be bothered to get up off my ass to flip a fucking light switch?
- Not everyone has the same level of mobility that you do.
  
  Incidentally, do you get off your arse to change the volume on your TV?
- I got a family that likes to leave the damn light switches all on at night, I'm no longer going around and shutting them all off when everyone is in bed. Also, they are tied to my alarm, when I disarm the alarm or it goes off, they all come on.
  
  But I'm doing all this through Home Assistant, a local open source automation server, not any of this cloud bullshit.
  
  That sounds more like a social problem than a technical one...
No better reason to ditch the internet of things.
- Permanently Deleted
  
  Yeah, IoT is pretty nice. But proprietary stuff can be very annoying and a huge security risk.
I work in IT and I keep a baseball bat handy in case I suspect a device has gone online.

However what a ridiculous situation on Amazon's part and it raises a bigger question. Even if this guy was 100% a racist shitbag, should he have had his Amazon account suspended unilaterally in the first place? Should someone have their bank account closed too then? How about utilities? I obviously am not agreeing with someone being racist but think that allowing corporations to impulsively take punitive actions is a slippery slope. Next thing we know, Amazon will be offering capital punishment as a service.

I'm of the opinion the "smart" home thing was just unintentional secondary, I can't imagine them being smart enough to do so on purpose.
- We fear change

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