cross-posted from: https://piefed.ca/c/technology@lemmy.world/p/902391/pet-owners-say-smart-pet-feeder-outage-led-to-furry-ones-going-unfed
This feels like bad design
Smart pet-feeder company Petlibro suffered an outage on Tuesday, giving users a harsh reminder of the risks of relying on smart devices.
Petlibro makes pet feeders that connect to Wi-Fi and, for setup with Petlibro’s mobile companion app, Bluetooth. Users can set the feeders to automatically dispense food at scheduled times, which is handy for pet care when the owner is out of the home.
In a statement to The Verge, Petlibro CEO York Wu said this week’s outage was “related to how the Petlibro app communicates with devices through its online servers.”
Some user reports have also conflicted with Petlibro’s claims about offline functionality. As The Verge pointed out, various users online claimed that during the outage, their devices did not perform any scheduled feedings, performed some feedings but not others, or performed feedings late (examples here, here, here, here, and here).
Because businesses are not in the business of providing valuable products and services that improve our lives; they are in the business of extracting value and maximizing profits by any means necessary.
When you see businesses like Microsoft signing contracts with Israel to help the IDF efficiently genocide Palestinians, do you genuinely believe they wouldn’t do the same to you the moment it becomes their most lucrative option?? Do you believe they would draw some arbitrary line in the sand between genocides, and magically reject profiting off your murder, imprisonment, or enslavement?
Even then! They can have WiFi for remote managing and still just store the program locally. Just seems wasteful for no reason, most people buying a WiFi pet feeder will connect it to the internet anyway.