{"id":594696,"date":"2026-08-24T18:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T18:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/594696\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T18:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T18:12:09","slug":"john-oliver-on-smart-appliances-spying-on-you-through-the-washing-machine-john-oliver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/594696\/","title":{"rendered":"John Oliver on \u2018smart\u2019 appliances: \u2018Spying on you through the washing machine\u2019 | John Oliver"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the Sunday night episode of his HBO show, John Oliver<\/a> discussed the rise of subscription-based business models across the worlds of music, film and TV, beauty, food, cleaning services and more.<\/p>\n

\u201cSubscriptions are now basically everywhere and many of us don\u2019t even realize how much we spend on them,\u201d Oliver said.<\/p>\n

A recent report found that Americans pay double the amount that they thought in monthly subscriptions, while about half of those surveyed still pay for one they had forgotten about or do not use.<\/p>\n

\u201cSubscriptions are a universally annoying problem,\u201d Oliver said. While newspapers and magazines have long had a subscription based business model, \u201cthe internet has made it much easier to apply a subscription model to basically everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now you can subscribe to just about anything such as Apocabox, which sends you survivalist tools, and BoneBox, which ships you (non-human) skulls.<\/p>\n

The normalization of subscriptions for music, film and TV streaming services began in the late 1990s when Netflix launched its DVD rental service and Salesforce introduced a subscription model for its software.<\/p>\n

Now, \u201csmart\u201d versions of appliances from baby alarm clocks to cat litter boxes often charge a subscription fee for continued use. The automobile industry has heavily leaned into the model, with up to $75 per month charged for services such as remote unlock or enhanced cruise control. General Motors are set to<\/a> bring in $25bn a year from subscriptions by 2030, rivaling the takings of Netflix.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, HP automatically kills your printer ink cartridges if you fail to keep up with monthly subscription fees.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s pretty annoying, isn\u2019t it?\u201d said Oliver. \u201cShe understandably assumed that she owned the ink that came with her printer, but suddenly she couldn\u2019t use it, which does feel like a waste.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s an obvious reason companies love this model,\u201d Oliver continued. \u201cAs HP\u2019s CEO told investors, \u2018We make more money per customer when they\u2019re in the subscription program.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, smart dishwashers, washing machines and other household appliances allow companies including General Electric to gather data about its customers\u2019 lifestyle and habits \u2013 such as that they will be doing more laundry if they just welcomed a child.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is so unsettling to me,\u201d said Oliver. \u201cNo company needs to know I had a child. There is a reason that you start birth announcements with dear family and friends, and not, \u2018To whom it may concern at the Whirlpool corporation.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

There are easier ways to spot a new parent such as their tired eyes and emotional volatility, the host joked, that \u201ccrucially don\u2019t involve spying on them through their fucking washing machine\u201d.<\/p>\n

Cancelling such subscriptions can be easier said than done. At times, people don\u2019t even realize that they signed up for them in the first place.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe you signed up for a bundle, so say you signed up for Lyft Pink and they threw in a year of GrubHub+\u201d Oliver said. \u201cYou didn\u2019t realize that after a year, GrubHub+ automatically converts into a paid subscription.<\/p>\n

\u201cCompanies have gotten very good at making it incredibly easy to sign up for subscriptions by accident, often by employing what are called dark patterns<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The term \u201cdark patterns\u201d refers to companies making \u201cdeceptive design choices\u201d that manipulate users into making decisions they may not have intended, continued Oliver.<\/p>\n

For instance, Amazon landed<\/a> in hot water in 2023 when the Federal Trade Commission claimed<\/a> that they were using dark patterns to get people to sign up<\/a> for Amazon Prime. A former Amazon employee told reporters that \u201cwe have been deliberately confusing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile companies go out of their way to make it incredibly easy to subscribe, they can make canceling a fucking nightmare,\u201d said Oliver.<\/p>\n

For instance, LA Fitness came under FTC scrutiny<\/a> last year after they made canceling a gym membership a lengthy process that could involve placing phone calls to management and sending certified mail.<\/p>\n

\u201cCompanies can use the same dark patterns that got you into a subscription to confuse you when you\u2019re trying to get out of it,\u201d Oliver went on.<\/p>\n

For instance, cancelling a Hello Fresh subscription required navigating several confusing webpages until recently.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Pay attention\u2019 and \u2018read\u2019 are two very difficult things to ask of the entire population all of the time,\u201d said Oliver. \u201cCompanies are banking on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oliver recommended that viewers check their bank accounts for recurring charges and to check their phone\u2019s subscriptions tab to ensure that they haven\u2019t accidentally been stung with recurring fees.<\/p>\n

Last summer, the FTC\u2019s proposed \u201cclick to cancel<\/a>\u201d rule was struck down<\/a> by the conservative US appeals court.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is frustrating that there is a tantalizingly easy fix to a ubiquitous problem within reach and we can\u2019t seem to have it,\u201d Oliver concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the Sunday night episode of his HBO show, John Oliver discussed the rise of subscription-based business models…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":594697,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[114,85,46],"class_list":["post-594696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=594696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594696\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/594697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}