Roku is exploring ways to show consumers ads on its TVs even when they are not using its streaming platform: The company has been looking into injecting ads into the video feeds of third-party devices connected to its TVs, according to a recent patent filing.
This way, when an owner of a Roku TV takes a short break from playing a game on their Xbox, or streaming something on an Apple TV device connected to the TV set, Roku would use that break to show ads. Roku engineers have even explored ways to figure out what the consumer is doing with their TV-connected device in order to display relevant advertising.
Any company trying to use the HDMI-CEC protocol in such a subversive manner should lose their license to the HDMI standard IMO.
The bastards that control the hdmi standard: yeah!
Roku: 💰
Bastards: actually no
It’s not like they ever properly implemented it in the first place.
I’m mad that they did their broken implementation of sending control codes between devices that never works. I have to disable it on everything so that the correct input gets set.
And then they are killing the universal remote industry so there is nothing to replace it with.
You know HDMI is not some big secret they can use it without the license and ship from overseas like 90% of shit shipped from China.
For cheap gizmos I can see a chinese seller getting away with it (rebranding under another weird name like AWOYO or something, in a sea of identical devices under different brand names), but not a large business like Roku.
Imagine being the guy working on this and how much you hate yourself anytime somebody asks you what you are working on.
Even worse: Imagine being the guy working on this and being proud of yourself.
I think the former situation is worse for the person working on it.
Unfortunately, I bet these guys don’t care. I used to work at a company you might have products from and I would constantly hear “Hey, we’re a business” as an excuse to degrade the user experience. :(
I remember having an argument with my teacher in college about this. He asked us what we would do if we were asked to code something that could be used for things you personally don’t agree with such as the government using tools to “help” but also remove peoples privacy. Or corporations being able to show you more ads. I told him i would refuse. And he said that it would be my job though and sometimes you have to do things you don’t like. So i told him i would quit. And for some reason he could not really comprehend that and we got into an argument.
To be fair, most people I know don’t have the financial flexibility to quit their job if they’re asked by their boss to do something objectionable
“Yeah, I know it’s shitty, but it pays the bills 🤷🏻♂️”
We had to listen this C-level guy give a speech how good the last couple of years have been. We’ve increased the price of services by 50% and the amount of useless upsell shit we push to people has gone up as well. While our wages are still the same and people are getting laid off constantly. But I need food and shit.
The shittiest of enshitifications.
We need an anti-awards show for shit like this.
I like that. If there was a site that did like The Razzies for movies but for technology enshitification, I would definitely watch, and probably follow a blog if it was done well
The plungies. Winners receive golden plungers
Roku has always been a shitty company that wants to monetize everything. People are finally waking up. How many of us have a Roku remote that advertises a useless or bankrupt streaming service?
I know I’m old, but I miss having numbers on my remote.
Now I have a “sling” and a “crackle” button. 🙁
Yeah, I do miss being able to quickly type a code to jump to a known broadcaster. Opening up a menu is slower than jumping direct to said thing.
The Roku buttons solves that a little bit, but there is only 4, you can’t change them, and they prioritize featuring whoever pays up.
"People are taking the piss out of you everyday. They butt into your life, take a cheap shot at you and then disappear. They leer at you from tall buildings and make you feel small. They make flippant comments from buses that imply you’re not sexy enough and that all the fun is happening somewhere else. They are on TV making your girlfriend feel inadequate. They have access to the most sophisticated technology the world has ever seen and they bully you with it. They are The Advertisers and they are laughing at you.
You, however, are forbidden to touch them. Trademarks, intellectual property rights and copyright law mean advertisers can say what they like wherever they like with total impunity.
Fuck that. Any advert in a public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours. It’s yours to take, re-arrange and re-use. You can do whatever you like with it. Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head.
You owe the companies nothing. Less than nothing, you especially don’t owe them any courtesy. They owe you. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, don’t even start asking for theirs."
– Banksy
How the fuck can an economy that’s almost nothing but advertisements sustain itself for any period of time? It feels like forcing more and more ads is the only thing anybody does for money anymore.
Brought to you by Carl’s Jr.
It’s got electrolytes!
Now I understand everyone’s shit’s emotional right now. But I’ve got a 3 point plan that’s going to fix EVERYTHING. …
Big economy, long time to fall. See example: rome or whatever.
They’re not even going to profit so much off the ads as they will having a new way to distribute them. Even then its, “line go up this quarter”, not “what if sales go down due to this?”. They’ll license it out to every offer company who needs it for line go up.
Wait until someone invents a bot/AI script that watches ads for you. Then the whole “ads everywhere” will either implode or it’ll trigger a war between AI ad makers and AI ad watchers
Either way, it’ll be entertaining.
They already have that it’s called click fraud or automated ad clicking, mostly though it’s websites that earned money from advertisers who engage in this, as a sleazy way of making more money.
Though if you want to partake in it there are ad blocking extensions that also do it. It’s not perfect but it is quite damaging to the advertising industry.
I’ve been using AdNauseam for several years already!
Interested in a 4 hour Adam Curtis documentary?
Don’t buy Roku TVs. Got it.
If Roku actually does this I would definitely never use them again. Completely asinine behavior. Especially because most people aren’t even using stand alone boxes with their smart TVs.
I would get rid of my old Roku that I’m sure is too old for this tech and urge everyone I know to never buy anything Roku, and if they did, I would lambast them every opportunity I could.
I will never buy a Roku device because of that forced arbitration stunt. We can add the fact that they are even considering this to the list of reasons.
Yeah, Roku must be on its last legs with the crap they’re pulling. All of this says to me: don’t buy Roku.
“Wow, this Roku TV is so cheap!”
Your selling your privacy and basically leasing the disposable tv.
This makes me make goddamm sure 1 don’t buy a smart tv. Two definitely a Roku one.
Good luck finding an affordable “dumb” TV. They’re just computer monitors and they cost a hell of a lot more at TV size than most people are able to spend. The smart TVs are so cheap because they are subsidized by the shit vendors paying the manufacturer to load their malware in front of your eyes.
Then I will not buy one I will spend whatever it is to continue using a dumb tv.
Roku is a pioneer in most of this crap but don’t be fooled to think that only cheap stuff is gonna have these and that somehow you are safe if you spend a lot on your TV. as it turns out high end and average TV producers would also like to squeeze the tiniest profit margins out of their consumers and if they could get away with it they would do the same.
in fact nowadays most TVs regardless of price are actually collecting and selling your data and in the best case it’s an opt out option in the worst possible place in the menu.
It seems like so long that Roku was not a horrible company. Simple little box for a good price with a small static ad on the home screen to make money.
Seems like a lifetime ago.
I mean, there was always this bullshit.
How and why is there a Blockbuster button lol
Because blockbuster paid for it.
My parent’s 10 year old Sharp TV has a Netflix button on the remote. That’s how long this has been going on.
Yeah, just saying Roku is has been the worst offender of this. Other manufacturers restricted these promotional buttons to streaming services that have large user bases. Roku sells those buttons to anyone who pays enough, and their remotes famously feature services that people don’t care about.
That little box even got a recent update that lets you ban certain ads by hitting *.
Is this why they made people waive their right to sue them?
Yeah… Fuck Roku.
No, no. The waiver was because they lost millions of people personal data to hackers and scammers. Entirely different fuckup.
I wish a pox on these capitalist pigs.
Every day I get a step closer to dropping all this trash, going back to piracy.
A piece of history
Never connect your smart TV to the internet. Just don’t do it. Get a third party device or ideally use an old PC with an appropriate HTPC Linux distro or something.
Wait, why? Is the TV spying on me any more than my phone, every app I use, my desktop OS, every website I visit, all of my smart home devices, my car, my bank, traffic cameras, and my bottom left molar?
Can’t I just slap a PiHole on my home network and pretend I’ve done something about it?
TVs have a history of listening and collecting a lot more data than a smart device.
With a TV device like an android or Linux box, you can prevent that as well as ad-injection because you can install whatever you want on the device and it’s not as locked down as a TV. You can even disable or physically remove recording devices if you’d like, and many smart boxes do not even come with them.
Also, a pihole does not guarantee you filtered out everything or prevented the TV from interfering with your experience.
A TV can also change its policy on the fly and suddenly start injecting ads. Many TVs do this to add additional income after your purchase.
Everyone expects a phone Nobody thinks about tvs
I use Arch btw
Roku, somehow becoming shittier than Twitter
I’m done with Roku. I have one in every room, but they all need to go.
No wonder why Walmart bought their asses
