---
title: "Everything I buy isn't quite mine"
date: 2025-09-18T19:46:19-07:00
url: https://blog.lmorchard.com/2025/09/18/only-licensed-never-bought/
author: Les Orchard
tags: [tech, surveillance, rants]
---

# Everything I buy isn't quite mine

I've been nursing an old-man-yells-at-clouds rant for a while: I hate this current era wherein I purchase something, but the company that made it continues operating as if they still own it—and everything I do with it. To wit:

- [Samsung confirms its $1,800+ fridges will start showing you ads](https://www.androidauthority.com/samsung-confirms-smart-refrigerator-ads-are-coming-3598848/) (2025)
- [Yes, Your TV Is Probably Spying on You. Your Fridge, Too. Here's What They Know.](https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/advice-smart-devices-data-tracking/) (2025)
- [Some Jeep owners are being hit with pop-up ads inside their cars—and it's all part of Stellantis's plan to make an extra $20 billion a year](https://fortune.com/2025/02/13/jeep-in-car-ads-popup-stellantis-software-revenue/) (2025)
- [Here's what Bambu will — and won't — promise after its controversial 3D printer update](https://www.theverge.com/2025/1/21/24349031/bambu-3d-printer-update-authentication-filament-subscription-lock-answers) (2025)
- [John Deere and Right to Repair over the years](https://pirg.org/resources/john-deere-and-right-to-repair-over-the-years/) (2024)
- [HP printers still block third-party ink](https://www.pcworld.com/article/1656073/these-hp-printers-can-be-upgraded-to-allow-third-party-printer-ink.html) (2023)
- [Tesla Remotely Disabled 80 Miles Of Range From Customer's Car Demanding $4,500, Backtracks When The Web Finds Out](https://www.carscoops.com/2022/07/tesla-remotely-disabled-80-miles-of-range-from-customers-car-demanding-4500-backtracks-when-the-web-finds-out/) (2022)
- [Amazon gave Ring videos to police without owners' permission](https://www.politico.com/news/2022/07/13/amazon-gave-ring-videos-to-police-without-owners-permission-00045513) (2022)
- [Amazon is turning Ring security videos into TV show](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/2022/07/13/amazons-ring-videos-tv-show-mgm/) (2022)
- [Why you can't buy Kindle books on iPhone](https://www.businessinsider.com/why-you-cant-buy-kindle-books-on-iphone-2014-4) (2014)

I'm tired of digging these up, but you get the picture. I bought something, yet it still serves the company that took my money. It only works for me incidentally and conditionally.

Every device I bring home becomes a potential "delivery channel" or "metrics source" for a large corporation. And this doesn't even touch on the [involuntary contribution](https://blog.lmorchard.com/2025/05/27/involuntary-stone-soup-ai/index.html) to AI and machine learning models trained on customer activity and content.

And yeah, I understand that, according to the fine print, most of what we "buy" now is just "licensed". But 20 or 30 years ago, this would have sounded like a conspiracy theory. (There's that cloud-yelling.)

Most of us—me included—have frog-boiled our way into this or grew up never knowing anything different. But, we weren't promised jet packs. We were promised Blade Runner and the [Weyland-Yutani Corporation](https://avp.fandom.com/wiki/Weyland-Yutani_Corporation). (I've been watching Alien: Earth lately.)

This is partly why I still hack and jailbreak everything I own—when I can muster the energy. But it's exhausting, especially when it breaks stuff I need to use. So, I tend to sigh and skip it. I try to direct my purchases toward tools that primarily serve me, but participating in modern society while maintaining that feels like a weirdo lost cause.