FTC Warns Beware of Smart Device Non-Support

Consumers and businesses buy tech because of the features. But those same customers are very reluctant to replace those devices. After all, they still seem to work.

But as I have been saying for years, there is a dark side of all of this tech that the vendors are not talking about.

Now the Federal Trade Commission is joining the fight.

The FTC found that many smart-device makers “fail to disclose” how long they will provide software updates for their products.

The FTC looked at 184 different smart devices, ranging from hearing aids to security cameras and found that nearly 89 percent of them don’t provide buyers with information regarding how long the products will receive software updates in order to continue operating properly.

That might be okay if you can use the device manually. For example, if your smart lightbulb app will no longer work with the current version of your iPhone but you can still turn it on and off from the wall switch, you may consider that acceptable.

But if your hearing aids need that app on your phone to work at all and it no longer does because Apple made a change to iOS and the app no longer works, then your only option may be to spend a few thousand for new hearing aids.

Of the 184 products they looked at, 161 did not disclose software update information.

And, you have to be careful. Sometimes manufacturers say they will support that device for “x” years from when it was released (phones are often specified this way). This is very different than support for x years after you buy it.

This is especially true when the price is a bargain. That may be because the vendor is planning to release a new, replacement model.

More importantly, off-brands, typically from China, may not provide software updates at all.

Recently, a new client told us that they bought a firewall on the recommendation of their IT vendor. A year later that same vendor said that they had to buy a new one because the firewall company is no longer issuing software updates.

While some individuals may be willing to continue using a device even if they no longer have the functionality that they bought the device for, businesses don’t have that luxury. If the device is no longer supported or if the device functionality decreases, they have to replace it.

While people, both consumers and businesses, might be tempted to continue using that device past that “end of life”, that is really not a good strategy.

As an example, network tech firm D-Link just announced that hackers had discovered vulnerabilities in some of their older devices but these devices were considered end-of-life by D-Link and they were not going to patch them. This was true even though those older devices were being attacked by hackers in the wild. D-Link suggested that device owners buy new devices and discard the old ones. In that case, owners of these devices either had to accept the risk that they might get hacked with whatever consequences come with that or having to instantly buy a replacement.

What if the device stops working after some time. My car started doing some really weird things recently and coincidentally, the carmaker had just issued a recall for a software update. Not a complete surprise, but after they installed the new software, the problem went away. Luckily, the carmaker was still supporting my car and since some of the problems that were fixed were part of a safety recall, I didn’t have to pay for it. I was lucky. But we also recently read about software problems with cars that were four or five years old and the carmaker said they were not going to fix it. Not for any cost. Fixes are just not available.

Here is our suggestion for dealing with this.

Lets say you want to buy a new phone. Decide how many dollars a year having that phone is worth to you. Say it is $150 a year. Then when you go looking at new phones, find out how long the one you are drooling over is going to be supported – say that is three years. Then you should not spend more than $150×3=$450 for that phone.

If the phone costs more then find out if you can buy an extended warranty (I never used to do that with household appliances but now there is so much software in them to break, one service call more than justifies it), add that cost into the equation and recalculate.

Same thing for businesses. We need this new machine. It is going to cost $10,000. But the warranty is only for two years. $10,000/2=$5,000 a year. Can this new machine generate more than $5,000 a year in profit for me. If so, buy the machine. You can hope the machine will wind up being supported for more than those two years, but by law, they are only required to fix or replace it during the warranty period. Beyond that, the can either charge you for the fix or choose not to provide one. You may get angry, but you may not have any options.

If you need help with these calculations, please contact us.

Credit: Tech Crunch