Mildly Infuriating

Yeah, that's another thing that bugs me about products that can be remotely-updated and especially those which don't currently represent an ongoing revenue stream. I think that it's a broader problem, too, not just cars.

I was kind of not enthusiastic when I discovered that TenCent bought the video game Oxygen Not Included and started pushing data-harvesting updates into it via Steam. As things stand, that's optional. But any company could do the same with other games and not have it be optional. If you figure that all the games out there that have already been sold aren't actually generating revenue but do represent the option to push and execute code on someone's computer, they have value to some other company that could purchase them and monetize that.

Then you figure that the same applies to browser extensions.

And apps on phones.

And all those Internet of Things devices that can talk to the network, cameras and microphones and all sorts of stuff.

There's a lot of room for people to sit down and say "what I have is a hook into someone else's stuff...now what things might I do to further monetize that? Or who might I sell that hook to who might be interested in doing that?"

Like, if I buy a product, all I can do when I make my purchasing decision is to evaluate the product as it is at purchase time. If the vendor also has the ability and right to change that product whenever they want, then what I'm actually buying is a pretty big question mark. And unless they've got some kind of other revenue stream on the line, their only real incentive to avoid doing so is the reputational hit they take...which for failing brands or companies, may not be all that large.

One constraint for efficient markets is that the consumers in it need to be informed as to what they're buying. If they don't have that property, you can get market failure. And a consumer can't be informed about what he's buying if the person selling them the product can change that product at any point after purchase.