My Oven Undressing Me with Its LED

Consumer TechDigital Endings
Written By Joe Macleod

Theoretical "consent" of the light being on. If that is the case, my headphones have been filming me. Also my oven. Watching me bend over in the kitchen, capturing my athletic human form to share with its other hot-box friends.

I notice I have also given consent to my TV speaker. Its cold eye stares at me across the room, trying to make eye contact, capturing my feet as I readjust my position while watching TV shows, films, or news. Sharing the content with the ad tech world to push me more content that might inspire more consumption, which will then be noticed by my light-wielding consent devices.

That little diode does some heavy lifting.

Can the consent of a light be shared beyond diodes? Is the street lamp with its all-powerful light spread just a bigger version of consent? Is consent bigger with bigger lights? Maybe I didn’t get the memo. Headlights could also be included on cars and trucks.

In an interview around the hardware release, Andrew Bosworth (then Meta’s VP of Reality Labs, now Chief Technology Officer) discussed whether the glasses violate the privacy of people nearby who never asked to be filmed. He stated:

"If somebody was taking a photo of you, and you didn't want them to, you would tell them: 'Hey, please don't take a photo of me.' And they would say: 'Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to.' And then they would stop. That's social etiquette."

When pressed on whether a tiny LED light was sufficient to alert a bystander, Bosworth argued that the LED was the signal that initiated that social contract, adding:

"It's on the user to make sure that people around them are aware."

What a deliciously ignorant world to live in, where people politely ask permission, or politely suggest the deletion of an accidental film capture.

Thankfully, regulators from the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) and Italian Garante warned that an illuminated LED is notice, not consent. Under GDPR, valid consent requires a freely given, specific, informed, and unambiguous indication of an individual's wishes.


Joe Macleod

Joe Macleod is founder of the worlds first customer ending business. A veteran of product development industry with decades of experience across service, digital and product sectors.

Head of Endineering at AndEnd. TEDx Speaker. Wired says “An energetic Englishman, Macleod advises companies on how to game out their endgames. Every product faces a cycle of endings. It's important to plan for each of them. Not all companies do." Fast Company says “Joe Macleod wants brands to focus on what happens to products at the end of their life cycle—not just for the environment but for the entire consumer experience.”

He is author of the Ends book, that iFixIt called “the best book about consumer e-waste”. And the new book –Endineering, that people are saying “defines and maps out a whole new sub-discipline of study”. The DoLectures consider the Endineering book one of the best business books of 2022.

https://www.andend.co
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