Samsung confirms its smart fridges will start showing you ads
63 comments
·September 18, 2025htatche
I’m just picturing a scenario where the fridge won’t open its door unless you finish watching an AI generated, very low quality, scammy ad. Looking at you, YouTube…
WhyCause
I'm just picturing me watching their stupid ad, then opening the door and permanently disabling the locking mechanism, with a sawz-all, if necessary.
prettyblocks
Philip K Dick's worst nightmares are coming true.
antisthenes
"Should you really be having that 3rd ice-cream today?" the fridge said. It sounded smug.
professoretc
And with eye/face tracking it can tell if you really watched it, with a smile.
c0balt
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thisislife2
What about a toilet that won't give you loo roll unless you watch an ad first? ( https://metro.co.uk/2025/09/17/dystopian-toilets-wont-give-l... ). As the toilet makers jump on to the AI bandwagon, soon toilets will be photographing your butt to fingerprint your anus, while data brokers sells your poop data to ... ? ( https://www.businessinsider.com/scientists-designed-a-smart-... )
avidiax
That is dystopian, but to be fair, this is China. They are literally rolling out facial ID tech to prevent paper thieves.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pj2bZCwJeVc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foT2kCByOgs
> soon toilets will be photographing your butt to fingerprint your anus, while data brokers sells your poop data
Life imitates art: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJklHwoYgBQ
flipnotyk
"Please drink a verification can of MTN DEW™"
strifey
You should read Ubik
juntoalaluna
I confirm I will never buy a Samsung fridge.
lcnPylGDnU4H9OF
It's probably best to expand that to any kitchen appliance that connects to the internet and has a screen.
jsbisviewtiful
Samsung appliances are notoriously not worth buying.
matthewdgreen
Ok, I know we always say this kind of stuff on HN and then the product is hugely successful anyway... But seriously, why am I even interested in buying a fridge with a display? That seems annoying even without the ads, and the ads are a product-killer.
emorning4
[dead]
summermusic
> Samsung is calling it a pilot program for now, which — I kid you not — is meant to “strengthen the value” of owning a Samsung smart fridge.
[0]https://www.theverge.com/news/780757/samsung-brings-ads-to-u...
Refreeze5224
For a while now Samsung and LG have been on my list of appliance makers not to buy. And this simply confirms that decision. I do not want smart features in my dishwasher, laundry, stove, or any other appliance, and I sure as hell don't want them to be internet-capable.
jsbisviewtiful
> I sure as hell don't want them to be internet-capable
There isn't really a good reason for appliances to be online-capable and in some cases it puts homes at risk. If you have that and like it, cool - good for you, but that's "innovation" for the sake of having a reason to sell a new product... a product that can be hacked to break or shutdown via a firmware update.
dekken_
This should be considered theft, they are stealing electricity to perform rendering/computation
sys_64738
What surprises me is that they don't forcibly try to connect to an open wifi network. I'm thinking the Comcast xfinity network. It feel like something that they would do.
Taek
It frustrates me greatly how little people, and especially regulators, value attention in modern society. Your behaviors as a human are largely driven by the things you pay attention to, and advertising is a form of driving your behaviors by bringing your attention to things that are good for them (and not necessarily good for you!).
In other words, advertising is a form of mind control. By hijacking your attention, it hijacks how you think about the world and changes what sorts of things you focus on every day, pulling your mental cycles into products when maybe without seeing that ad you'd instead be thinking about family.
I really think the social and societal cost of advertising is immense, and that it should be strongly regulated. Especially because most people greatly under-value their own attention and under-estimate how much seeing ads in their kitchen every day is going to disrupt and hijack their normal thinking patterns.
horsawlarway
I can't possibly see how this wouldn't warrant an immediate full refund for the fridge...
duxup
I get the idea that "oh man we've got billboards in every home, imagine the money" motivation.
I don't get how that gets through the usual meetings and there's no sense of "people won't like this, they will associate our products with obtrusive ads".
jihadjihad
> I don't get how that gets through the usual meetings and there's no sense of "people won't like this, they will associate our products with obtrusive ads".
Ever turned on a Samsung TV?
duxup
I don’t think I own one, granted mine is perpetually offline too.
SomeoneOnTheWeb
Most people's TV show ads nowadays, be it Samsung or a competitor. The thing is, people don't care about ads. They just deal with it. Hence how Samsung gets away with this sh*t.
inferiorhuman
Samsung appliances are already well known to be among the most problematic around with about the worst warranty service (and lowest rates for techs who work on them) in the industry. They probably figure anyone who's okay with that nonsense is also okay with a few ads.
unconed
Because the person whose job depends on keeping the customers happy is not the same as the person whose job depends on making spreadsheet numbers go up.
cschep
can you imagine allowing this into your house? who is this for? I guess maybe if they give the fridges away.. oh god don't give them ideas.
mrkeen
Don't give them ideas you say?
What if they develop an iconic fridge and dial up the brand recognition to 11 via an intensive and prolonged ad campaign.
Introducing...
The KAGE
After the dust has settled, they push the ad update remotely.
You don't connect your fridge to the internet, like some kind of Luddite?
No worries, they thought of that and bundled a sim card with it.
pickleglitch
No, they won't give the fridge away. It will be like Smart TVs. They will be slightly cheaper (allegedly) because they are "subsidized" by ad dollars.
thatgerhard
I'll take the free fridge and jailbreak it
general1465
Careful, they will likely make you sign an agreement that you are not going to reverse engineer, jailbreak or gain access in any unauthorized way to the electronic systems. At least car manufacturers are doing that.
someotherperson
How long until this is in computer monitors as well? Seems like that's the last frontier of Samsung screens that don't come with ads.
nicce
Many Samsung monitors are not monitors anymore. They are mini TVs with ads.
It would be fine if you willingly buy stuff which shows you ads. But what happens is that you buy stuff without realizing it shows ads, or - even worse - it starts showing ads long after you bought it. Case in point, my echo show first showed ads months after I bought it, but only once every few days. Now, it shows ads almost all the time. I wonder how this is even legal here in Germany.