Once upon a time, I worked for a Great Big Research Company — no name necessary, but let’s just call them A.C. Nielsen, because it’s easier to type “Nielsen” instead of “Great Big Research Company” — and the department I worked for was called “Trade Relations”.
A little background is necessary here, before I continue. Most people, when seeing the name, think of the Nielsen Ratings as pertaining to TV. In fact, that division of the company was only responsible for about 20% of corporate revenue, when I worked there. The vast majority of revenue came from providing market-related information to the manufacturers of consumer packaged goods (CPG) manufacturers like Proctor & Gamble, Kraft Foods, Unilever, Heinz Foods, S.C. Johnson, Pepsi-Cola and so on. (Nielsen actually coined the term “market share” when Arthur Nielsen founded the company back in the early 1920s.)
Basically, the concept was simple: how much product was being purchased by consumers at any given time? One would think that manufacturers would have had a good idea of this, based on their own shipping data, but they didn’t, for all sorts of reasons. For one thing, retail outlets like Kroger or Safeway would buy a lot more cases of product than they actually needed at the time and warehouse it, both to make their own resupply of their stores more efficient and to lock in prices in case of future increases (known as “forward buying”).
In fact, most manufacturers had no clue how actual consumer sales were faring for their products. What Nielsen did was approach the retail chains and get access to their sales data (either through outright purchase or by auditing a representative sample of stores), assembling the data into huge databases and then creating monthly or bi-monthly reports which the CPG manufacturers would purchase. So when the manufacturers approached the retailers and talked about pricing and delivery, both sides of the table would be talking about the same data and negotiations would be comparatively cordial, in theory anyway.
Obviously, for such a system to work for Nielsen, there had to be a good relationship with the supermarket chains, hence the existence of the “Trade Relations” department. What we did, therefore, was collect the data and, in the form of account executives like myself, relay market-level data back to the chains’ executives. Because while the chain would know how much they had sold of a product to consumers, they had no idea of what their competitors had sold of the same, and therefore had no idea of their own market share.
In many cases, Nielsen was able to leverage the value of that retailer’s information against the cost of the data, which is where people like myself were critical: the quality of the reporting was of great value to the retailers’ marketing and merchandising departments. Several large chains admitted, privately, that their business plans would have been not only more difficult but almost impossible without the reporting supplied by Yours Truly and his compatriots. For a free service, therefore, it was a no-brainer.
All went well until Art Nielsen Jr. (son of the company’s founder) sold out to some evil bloodsucking company of debt collectors (Dun & Bradsomething) whose accountants, after a couple of years, decided that we in Trade Services were providing such a good service to retailers that the retailers should start paying for those services — which, as we know, had hitherto been free. The result of this little corporate reindeer game was twofold: the retailers told us to fuck off, and I resigned and went to work for a Great Big Advertising Agency instead.
I told you all that so I could tell you this.
I have often railed against this trend of “convenience”, made ineffably worse by the age of electronics and most recently, by the Internet of Things whereby activities that required even the slightest effort can now be ameliorated or eliminated by having remote access to said activities.
Chief among these, of course, are things like programmable refrigerators, remote starters for cars, and of course Satan Amazon’s Alexa.
And as I have also said before, the very nature of these things involved giving something — or to be more specific someone — access to your appliances, vehicles and lifestyle. While I joked about some asshole kid in the basement of his mother’s house in Schenectady being able to hack into your network’s system and turn on your stove to get your house to burn down, I can see now that making a joke of the situation — in hoc reductio ad absurdam, so to speak — was not helpful.
What is more malevolent is that someone actually inside your personal network — i.e. the provider of a service — can start to affect your life, and in ways that are not always to your advantage.
The specific case in point is this trend of auto manufacturers (step forward BMW, you bloodless Kraut assholes) to take electronic conveniences included in your car and start to levy a fee to continue the features’ usage. Your reversing camera — a great safety feature, by the way — would suddenly become inoperable unless you paid a “nominal” (say, $19.99) monthly fee to BMW.
In other words (and this goes back to my experience in the supermarket business), what you used to get for free as part of your purchase would suddenly involve a cost.
Now we could all probably live with unheated seats, for example, or having to use a key to start the car’s engine instead of starting your car with an electronic fob (also, by the way, easily hacked by thieves). But the thought of having to pay some monthly pound of flesh to Big Auto for features that were supposedly included in the (already bloated) purchase price of your car should make one want to resist such a change.
The legality of such manufacturers’ initiatives is discussed by Internet lawyer Steve Lehto — the link sent to me by Longtime Reader Mike L., thank you Mike, and which gave rise to this whole rant. And yes of course one can discuss legalities all day, except that the minute one does, one has to involve both lawyers and politicians (considerable overlap), all to deal with a situation that should fall under the concept of “doing the right thing”, but which in modern times seems to have gone bye-bye like so much else, and particularly in the case of Global MegaCorp Inc. and their fucking accountants (who, make no mistake, are the driving force behind this bullshit just as the Dun & Bradstreet accountants were behind the initiative which drove me from A.C. Nielsen).
What’s worse is that I don’t know if this wave of bloodsucking bastardy can even be slowed, let alone halted or reversed. Certainly, if one is going to purchase a car from Global CarMaking Inc., resistance will be futile because they hold all the cards (and especially the politicians) in their sweaty little accountants’ hands, and the increase in corporate profitability will be cheered to the rafters by their shareholders — who, lest we forget, are largely composed of other big companies like retirement funds and such, as well as politicians (don’t get me started).
And “the market” is unlikely to come to our assistance either.
Oh sure, one could always buy an ancient vehicle which does not hold all the electronic doodads which make this corporate fuckery possible, or else a “stripped down” vehicle like, say, a Caterham which is bare-bones driving incarnate:
…until, of course, the Gummint passes legislation which outlaws the ownership of older cars or trucks (because of “environmental” concerns) or of stripped-down cars (because they don’t contain sufficient “safety” features).
And if you think that Congress wouldn’t dare to pass such legislation, you obviously haven’t been paying attention because that’s precisely what they’ve been doing for the past half-century.
Of course, this isn’t just confined to the U.S.A.; it’s already a going concern in Europe and the U.K. (ULEZ, anyone?). So the steamroller is well on its way, and you’re the one staked out in its path.
Have a nice day.
Me, I think I’ll go to the range.
The amount of electronics on a modern vehicle is beyond stupid. I work in the Information Technology world. It’s a job for me.
I am not passionate about technology. This day and age so many people purchase things because they are cool. Not because they are functional or make their life easier or better.
I have a smart phone. I can do many things from it. I see others buying the smart watches. Fuck that bullshit. Others that have the watches say “oh I can answer calls from my watch”. Really? I can do that from the phone I have without paying more money and wearing that oversized phone on my wrist
Video games today. I haven’t played new ones in years. Old ones you put that game in and boot it up. Fits on a cd or cartridge.
Today. You buy a game even if it’s on a cd or cartridge and there’s a multi gig download before you can even play. And most games today it’s a rental or a lease in a way. You don’t get physical media no cd no cartridge. You get the license to play the game. Look at many streaming services that change content , merge or are shut down. All your purchases you thought you owned are now gone.
“Old” cars not classics, from say, 2000 to 2016 are being or were sold in the tonage during and after Covid. People knew that new cars were expensive and a hot mess. Look at the recalls from rushed production on new stuff.
And all the tech is new cars is stupid. I want to drive a machine. Not a computer down the road.
Even if govt doesn’t ban older cars that were basic good luck finding any at a reasonable price. Prices on all cars are stupid high.
Smart thermostats, Smart locks and smart lights in your home? What’s wrong with old school mechanical timers? Now we open our homes to hackers. Oh you mean instead of putting the package on my porch and someone may just steal the package I’ll use a smart lock to open my door to a stranger and let them into my home to put the package in and steal my whole fucking house contents instead? Or have a hacker get in? Dreamy.
Let’s just really hope that we don’t get smart guns. With finger print tech or you wear this watch to make the gun discharge. If you think smart cars or smart thermostats in your home are bad, wait until we get fist fucked with smart guns.
I’m a millennial. And older one. Almost was born into gen x. This world today is not the same world it was when I graduate high school over 20 years ago. The world today is broken and one reason among many is that we fixed the world with technology. Technology that actually makes our lives worse.
You won’t achieve true curmudgeon status until you get angry that there are no more microwaves with a simple timer dial and power button. That is all you need in reheating leftovers, nothing smart.
curmudgeon – someone who is old enough to have experienced the bullshit of life and realizes what is needed and what is not needed to live a fulfilling life.
Most of the tech today are gloried portable computers mixed with tracking and marketing devices – people are paying for their own chains.
And their lives aren’t any better off.
All this safety shit on new cars and more accidents than ever on the roads.
The only way to mandate “smart guns”, will be the outlawing, and confiscation of every gun made that does not have “smart” technology. Yes, they can try to do that, but 200MM+ gun owners in America, possessing something in the neighborhood of 500MM firearms in one form or another, will not go quietly into that good night.
My wife and I are Amazon Prime users, which we use for “free” package delivery and about once a week we watch a “free” TV show, say, Seinfeld. Last week we both received emails telling us that in late Jan the “free” TV shows would continue to be free but they would have commercial ads but if we wanted to avoid them we could pay a monthly fee to now see them.
Guess what?
We’re not going to see them anyway.
Know why?
We are going to kick them to the curb.
We watch TV for 1 hour per day, while we are eating supper, as a way to relax and recharge. That is “our” time and no one, not Amazon or anyone else, gets to interfere with it. If they try, well, we have 4 DVD players with purchased old tv shows on them that we rotate through.
When people in mass stop tolerating stuff that stuff will cease. Seriously, I’m old (68) and not very tolerant of all the silliness that has engulfed this planet.
Agreed. I have a bunch of dvds I need to dig out. I usually watch a bunch of YouTube. I don’t pay for prime. I usually have 35 bucks of stuff to hit the free shipping anyways. So no way am I paying for prime.
I do have a Firestick to watch some steaming stuff. But I watch free stuff.
DVDs are better. Old tech is the best.
I have all the seasons of married with children on DVD and the best Christmas movie ever on dvd as well, Die Hard.
To continue the theme of market tracking, let’s not forget GPS tracking built into new vehicles. Insurance companies would just love to receive the data of how you drive, and where you drive. Of course, where you drive is now the interest of the Gov’t (why?) so Congress is now in the process of passing laws to mandate GPS tracking built into every vehicle.
Combine that with the already existing “kill switch” law, and you could easily have Gov’t agents set up a ‘no-go zone’ where only “approved” vehicles are allowed to enter. Or alternatively in an Orwellian dystopia, you cannot leave your “approved area” or only for “approved visits”. Violating the approval results in immediately having the vehicle dying. And I’m certain you can come up with other scenarios.
One other scenario with “smart” cars
You spoke something, likely the truth and it hit a nerve with the Govt.
As you drive home your vehicle drives off of a cliff for you on auto pilot.
The news then states “today, known dissident Joe Schmoe took his car off of auto pilot and drove himself off of a cliff “
The govt will then mandate auto pilot and not allow manual driving mode anymore.
Rinse and repeat as more dissidents are eliminated.
So right now you can take your “chip” out of your vehicle and have it flashed. That is, if I added some go-fast bits to my engine it wouldn’t really help because the computer is still trying to control it via the programming for the original engine. By flashing the chip, it is reprogrammed to control the newly modified engine to produce more power. This is a common thing that’s been done for many years now. Other things can be done too, such as removing speed limiters or other such nannies.
I have a plug in device on my 10 year old truck that connects via my phone. I’ve used it to program my truck for towing and trailer brake control. My truck didn’t originally have a towing package or trailer brakes, but I was able to convince the computer that it now has that and it’s fully functional. A little tedious having to use my phone to adjust it rather than the in-dash touchscreen, but for a 10 year old truck I can accept that (given that new trucks cost twice as much as my first house).
I would expect in short order that third party types would be able to re-program your new vehicle to a) have no ingoing/outgoing messsaging capability to prevent the factory from turning off settings you didn’t pay for, b) overrides to activate settings you desire, and c) dual mode ability to mimic original factory settings when the vehicle needs to be “inspected” by the state.
Now I admit it is infuriating that one would need to go to a third party and pay extra for the ability to control the expensive new vehicle you just bought, but there are work-arounds for the motivated types.
As a side note, John Deere has been involved in some controversy where they are trying to prevent third parties from the ability to repair their tractors. I’m not 100% on all the details, but essentially the electronics package (which is quite important on the new tractors) is locked to only allow certified Deere technicians to access it. Or something like that. This is an even bigger issue – imagine after warranty still having to take your ride back to the stealership for all maintenance, even oil changes, rather than doing it yourself or taking it to the local shop.
He said “stealership”, I likes. heh-heh
My understanding that Stihl (chainsaws, etc.) have been doing the Deere thing for many years. When your Stihl breaks you have to take it to their stealership. Other people can work on it but they can’t get Stihl parts.
Another thing manuf’s are doing is making it impossible get the to things that need fixed. My brother told me about something called “safety bolts” that are designed in such a way that if you try to take them out with anything other than the approved tool the head snaps off, requiring you to use a broken bolt extractor, if you can even get to it that way. It’s never ending.
John Deere.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPYy_g8NzmI
John Deere has been doing that for several years – and worse. Their tractor software is complex enough to occasionally lock up and require rebooting, but only a John Deere technician can reboot it. From what I hear, it’s not just that you lose the GPS and autopilot, but the tractor won’t even move until the technician gets there. That’s a huge problem for a farmer that’s 200 miles from the city and has a limited time to plow and plant his 10,000 acres.
I don’t understand why anyone has bought a John Deere in the last five years or so…
Farmers are lobbying their congressmen to ban such practices. I’d prefer rather than the government telling businesses how to run their business, that they’d restrict the DCMA, making it legal to hack the software that runs the things you own, and to sell software that helps you do this, or to replace the manufacturer’s software. Until you can do this, you don’t own what you bought!
I was a software developer for Dun and Bradstreet in the 80’s and 90’s. At one point we were the 6th largest software development company in the world. They embraced diversity where the software side got broken up and spun off where it went out of business within 6 years.
In 1973, I took a couple of elective auto shop classes while in junior college. This was the text book.
https://www.amazon.com/Engines-Electrical-Systems-Blanchard-Ritchen/dp/B000O6EBAK/ref=sr_1_1?Adv-Srch-Books-Submit.x=0&Adv-Srch-Books-Submit.y=0&qid=1704901016&refinements=p_28%3Aauto+engines+and+electrical+systems&s=books&sr=1-1&unfiltered=1
Still have mine. Now all I need is a barn find Chevy C10 pickup.
Where to start ??!!
John Deere has built a hornet’s nest and I hope will eventually come to their senses. Many other companies are watching closely to see if they too can hop onto this gravy wagon ! It DIDN’T work for home computer manufacturers in the early 80’s who tried to force proprietary software onto their customers – anyone remember Atari ?? Or any others ??
Essentially my background is 40+ years in mainframes. I often wondered what a tyrannical gov’t would or COULD do with the computing power we had in the 80’s 90’s 2000’s. Some of my musings while not 100% accurate, have none the less been scary to say the least !
Put all of your purchases on credit cards ? Try this – Your medical provider ( gov’t or private, makes no difference ) buys YOUR purchase history. They notice that you smoke a carton of cigarettes a week and that you buy 3-12 packs a week as well.
Your premiums just went up – maybe a LOT – and you have NO IDEA WHY nor can you get an explanation from you coverage provider. Have fun !
Noticed all of the news/interest/stories recently for ‘digital currencies’ ??
There’s a reason. ONE WORLD CURRENCY is the goal. No more cash – just a card or an implanted chip or, I know, a tattoo !!
This would give gov’t ABSOLUTE control over EVERYTHING YOU DO !
You didn’t pay your electric bill or property taxes or that speeding ticket you got in another state, almost anything could suddenly trigger you being unable to do much of anything. Can’t buy or pay for ANYTHING, food, gasoline clothing, utility bill, alimony, N O T H I N G until you do what is being demanded by ‘the authorities’ – pay something, submit to a search, show up for your trial ANYTHING !!
You think identity theft is a nightmare now ?? Just wait. Ask our esteemed host here about error rates in LARGE databases.
It may come down to proving that you are you and depending on how much has been corrupted or is simply wrong you may actually NOT BE ABLE to prove that you are who you say you are you !! What then ??
It’s comming folks, take bets on it. Our betters are not going to be stopped unless ………………………
You all have a nice day now and keep those cards and letters comming !!
I already have digital currency:
.308, .45, 12g, …well, you get the idea.
In a moment of madness I recently traded a perfectly good, nay excellent diesel X5 on a new BMW i4. (Don’t start, I know).
The i4 is basically an app with an engine. It’s got almost zero buttons and dials, almost everything (fan speed for example) is controlled through “the interface”.
Sales guy told me that dealer finance is much more common in the US than here in shakey little NZ. The i4 is location aware – BMW can see the car all the time. You can’t turn it off. He tells me that they can now remotely disable the car – so look out if you miss a payment. On the plus side, they can, theoretically, disable the car is some toe rag steals it, and tell me where it is so it can be collected.
His view was that the dealer model was in trouble as it is underpinned by servicing revenue and electric cars with no engines, less lubricants, no oil filters and what have you don’t need replacing. All the controls being software don’t break.
Interestingly, just about the only analog controls are the start button and the forward/backward switch we used to call the gear lever. Only one forward gear now of course, so these two controls are there for user comfort, not need.
So, the cunning plan is to move people from a “capex” model to an “opex” model and that idea of “rent the seat heating” is just part of getting us ready for the change.
My “key” is now of course electronic, it doesn’t touch anything. It has all my preferences saved on it, audio, seats, mirrors, ride settings etc. when I put my car in for a service, they pair my key to the loaner and copy across all my settings.
I can also “send” my key (via an app of course) to someone else with a phone and allow that person time bound access to my car via their phone.
Welcome to the 21st century……