Why tech companies aren’t your friends: lessons from Roku

This month, many of the 80 million owners of Roku devices, including streaming sticks, set-top boxes and Internet-connected TVs running the company’s streaming software, turned on their Rokus to see a block of text. I, the owner of a cheap Roku TV in my bedroom, was one of those stuck with the screen.

The message included updated terms of service that made it more difficult for customers to take legal action against the company. Unless they agreed, users were blocked from accessing the Roku menu and apps, essentially bricking their devices. The only way to unsubscribe was to send a letter to the company.

To Isaac Phillips, a software engineer in Tampa, Florida, this felt unfair. So he came up with a solution to disconnect his Roku TV from the internet and use it as a normal TV without Roku’s apps, including Netflix, Hulu and other streaming services.

“It should belong to whoever paid for it,” Mr Phillips said. “It just doesn’t seem right to completely exclude anyone from it. It’s quite unacceptable.”

Also this month, Roku announced a security breach involving approximately 15,000 user accounts. The victims’ login credentials were illegally obtained through a breach of another company’s servers and were used to access Roku accounts to purchase streaming subscriptions, according to Roku.

“Like many companies, Roku updates its terms of service from time to time,” the company said in a statement, adding that the change was not related to the breach.

Roku’s bad month sparked debate in online forums about what it means when a company can essentially deactivate the device you paid for. That’s similar to how companies like Apple, Google and Microsoft may decide to stop issuing software updates for older devices, causing a gradual decline in performance.

It is a lesson we must learn and relearn. Companies, even those that say they strive to please us and improve our lives, are catering to their own interests. In reality, the tech products we buy may evolve to continue to protect those interests – and the hoops we have to jump through to gain some control are often impractical. Here’s a reminder of what you need to remember.

We don’t really own our tech products

When we bought a TV over ten years ago, it was just that: a big screen to which you could connect anything you wanted. Today, the vast majority of TVs connect to the internet and run the manufacturer’s operating system and apps. Even though you purchased the TV, the software component, which is a major part of what makes the product work, remains under the company’s control.

Changes to the product’s software interface and data collection practices may occur at any time. In extreme cases, a device can stop working. For example, in 2020, Amazon deactivated the Echo Look, a camera that helped people organize their closets. It gave owners a promotional credit to buy another Amazon gadget that lacked similar features.

The less extreme, more common situation is when companies stop supporting older products because they need to sell new gadgets. For example, Apple’s original Apple Watch from 2015 no longer receives software updates and now barely works anymore.

This problem isn’t new, but has become more problematic as more of our devices rely on apps and internet connections, says Nathan Proctor, director of the US Public Interest Research Group, a consumer advocacy organization. Computers allowed consumers to customize their machines by installing a different operating system. But many other types of electronics with locked-down software systems, from streaming devices to ebook readers, typically don’t allow for those adjustments.

“If you get to the heart of it, do you still own it?” he said.

Consumers have no protection

In a nutshell, Roku’s terms of service have long required customers to resolve any legal disputes through a private forum, the process known as mandatory arbitration, which can prevent consumers who share the same complaints from banding together to file lawsuits. The updated terms added language protecting the company from so-called mass arbitrations, in which attorneys could file hundreds of thousands of individual arbitration claims, a tactic to fight back against arbitration clauses.

Mandatory arbitration clauses have become an industry standard. The terms of service for companies including Sony PlayStation, Vizio and Hulu contain similar language about arbitration, and those companies also require consumers to send a letter opting out of those terms.

Roku customers can opt out of the revised terms and continue using their products, but the process is not intuitive. First, they must click the “agree” button on the terms of service screen. They must then send a letter requesting to opt out of the terms, along with a copy of the sales receipt for their Roku product, within 30 days to Roku’s General Counsel at 1701 Junction Court, Suite 100, San Jose, California 95112.

Also a Roku spokesperson gave a list of steps for those who want to use their Roku TVs as normal TVs without an internet connection. It means pressing a button or hole on the back of the TV to reset the software and skipping the internet connection setup step.

Why is it harder to unsubscribe than to log in? Because the companies are legally allowed to do this.

I suggest Roku customers follow these steps to opt out of the new terms and hold on to what little power they have. For example, I took this opportunity to disconnect my Roku TV from the Internet and connect another streaming device with less onerous terms, an old Apple TV. As for an opt-out letter: I plan to use the AI ​​chatbot ChatGPT to draft a sharp note.

Separately, Roku customers who have been particularly vulnerable in recent weeks have been the 15,000 affected by a cyber attack known as ‘credential stuffing’. Hackers obtained usernames and passwords leaked elsewhere and reused them to log into Roku accounts. The lesson here is to create a strong, unique password for every Internet account you own, and never use it for any other site.

The fine print: tech companies are not our friends

Like many tech companies, Roku has marketed itself as a company that puts consumers’ interests first. The website, adorned with wholesome photos of families watching TV, invites you to join the millions of people saving money by cutting the cord. The streaming devices, including the $20 Streaming Stick and the $290 55-inch TV, are also relatively cheap.

But every successful company exists to make money, not make friends, and Roku’s aggressive actions this month should make that crystal clear.

With Roku and similar low-cost streaming products like Google’s $30 Chromecast and Amazon’s $40 Fire TV Stick, you largely subsidize the purchase of the product by sharing your data with advertisers, says Jen Caltrider, a director at Mozilla who investigates companies’ privacy policies.

But Roku is a bigger offender, as it collects far more information than is necessary to provide a device running streaming apps, including information about your work, education and religious beliefsshe said.

“Their privacy policy is a shining example of a terrible privacy policy for a consumer,” Ms. Caltrider said. “They are a data cleansing company.”