TL;DR
- Samsung is allegedly rolling out a new software update for some of its smart refrigerators.
- The update adds advertisements to the display on the refrigerator door on certain themes.
- The changelog frames the ads as a feature, but users can avoid them by selecting specific ad-free themes — for now.
Imagine paying top dollar for a brand-new high-end refrigerator only to be greeted with ads on the door display. Sounds like a nightmare? Unfortunately, this nightmare is coming true for Samsung refrigerator owners with the latest update rolling out to their fridges.
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A Reddit user shared the changelog for the latest update arriving on their Samsung refrigerator (spotted via Sammobile).
As the changelog notes, the refrigerator will now allegedly display advertisements on the Cover Screen for a few themes. Users who would prefer not having ads on their fridge can use the two themes that aren’t getting ads (yet).
It’s unclear which refrigerators are getting this ad-ridden update, as Samsung sells a bunch of models with a cover display, none of which are cheap. The changelog attempts to sell ads as a feature for the benefit of users, but they are still ads on your fridge at the end of the day. Ads are most effective when they are tailored and personalized, so there is an inherent presumption of data collection in some form for this “service enhancement.”
If you ever wondered if you need a smart fridge or not, let this be an argument against them. Smart fridges can be useful in certain scenarios, like changing modes over Wi-Fi, for instance, but corporate greed means that every connected display will eventually be used to display ads.
We’ve reached out to Samsung for a statement and to learn which models are getting this update. We’ll update this article when we learn more.
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