I think in most cases it’s added functionality and convenience at the cost of privacy, sure the scale is still gonna tell you how much you weigh, but what if it automatically saved that to an app so you can track your weight loss progress without writing it down manually (as long as you’re OK with some company also having that info so they can share ads with you for weight loss products to help you reach that goal faster without allowing you to build the habits to do it right.

Isn’t it nice that you can just ask your fridge if there’s milk in it while you’re at the store rather than hoping you have milk, or assuming you dont? Disregard the fact that Samsung is using that fridge to know whether or not you’re home right now, if you have an iPhone, or what kind of smart TV you have. It’s still a fridge, it still keeps things cool, until a firmware update breaks that of course, guess you just need to buy a new fridge, it’s been a couple years anyway.

Sometimes (though not often) the smart appliance is cheaper since they know they’re gonna make money on the data.