Hey everyone, welcome. This is an open apology to anyone who has watched a vast majority of my YouTube reviews. I am apologizing for leaving out information that I absolutely should have included.
My YouTube Recap
Long story short, my channel has gone through many identity crises. It could never figure out what to stand on because I was trying to navigate university, buying a house, getting married, raising three kids, and managing a full-time career. That is why I kept switching gears, moving from cell phone modifications and cell phone reviews to audio gear, TVs, and everything else. So much of my time was spent on things outside of YouTube. Another issue, which I explained in great detail in here, is how independent creators face unfair competition. Big YouTubers receive phones early under NDA so they can post reviews first. People like me, who put in more work and explain things in better detail, get no views.
For example, I always tried to improve my content by critiquing cell phone signal quality back when I reviewed models like the iPhone 6 or 7. I would explicitly point out that an iPhone had much poorer signal quality than a competing LG phone. I do not know of any major tech YouTuber who actually analyses signal quality on a smartphone, but I did it, and yet no one watched. Ultimately, it became too expensive to keep purchasing retail cell phones just to review them. In that previous article detailing my channel’s identity crisis, I really ripped into some of the massive creators in the space, including MKBHD, This is Tech Today (which is one of the worst audio channels I have ever seen), and Linus Sebastian of Linus Tech Tips and ShortCircuit.
My Apology
But before I continue criticising other influencers, even though viewers have urged me to call out more of them for spreading fake information just for views and money and before I continue criticising multi-billion dollar companies like Apple and Microsoft, I realize I need to call myself out first. I apologise.
To take this accountability further, let’s glance at my YouTube playlists to review my past coverage and explain where I should have done a better job. I still stand by exactly what I said in every single review. However, if a product lacked security and privacy, I should have downgraded its score much more severely. For example, if I gave a Samsung Galaxy phone an eight out of ten, I should have dropped it to a four or five out of ten because Samsung and Google collect and sell your data. That is the information I should have covered.
Smart TVs
Looking at my playlists, we can skip over my tech privacy and consumer tech advice videos, as that is where I have already refreshed my approach to give better advice. Instead, let’s look at my TV reviews, which are a great target for self-criticism. I love good displays, especially OLEDs, and we still own the LG OLED C9 I reviewed years ago. In that review, I praised its smart capabilities for being fast and stable. That is still true, but I should have explained that when you agree to the terms or use your email, they collect and sell your data. That is a massive no-no.
The same applies to Samsung devices. I remember praising the minimalistic remote on a QLED 8K TV, though I also criticized 8K TVs as a total joke. Looking at where we are now, 8K TVs are essentially gone, so I was right about that. Ideally, it would be best to get an OLED display with no smart capabilities at all. You should just turn off the smart functionality and plug in your own Linux media player using a mini computer bought used off eBay for around $120 Canadian.
Media Players
Cameras are fine, as the ones I reviewed are not really privacy-invading. However, my general tech reviews are really bad because they include some of the most evil tech companies, like Apple, Amazon, and Google. I reviewed the Google Home and Chromecast, and now Roku is becoming extremely popular with its aggressive data collection and advertising. Ultimately, you shouldn’t be buying these media players at all.
I know it is a bit of a contradiction because I use the Nvidia Shield, and I openly admit it. But I have been contemplating building a mini Linux machine, running something like Bazzite, that just boots up as a media player. The problem is that even if I buy and build it used, everything is super expensive. People on eBay are inflating the prices of used parts because they know buying used components like RAM or SSDs is more economical than buying new. Building a computer nowadays, whether new or used, is a total ripoff. Still, it beats media players, which exist solely to watch and collect everything you do.
There is a reason why I built a server and am going down the path of self-hosting; it is fantastic, I am learning a lot, and it feels incredibly gratifying. You can still use DVD and Blu-ray players, but do not use their smart capabilities. If they have apps like Netflix, avoid them, because that is where your data gets collected and sold.
Smart Home Tech
As for smart home tech, oh god it is an absolute nightmare. It is a nightmare in two ways, starting with security. A lot of these devices do not get patched over time because the companies just abandon them. I made an article about this, explaining how companies abandon smart home technology and the products just stop working. Forget security updates; they lose their smart functionality entirely. I wish I had covered that more in my reviews. I should have warned you that when you buy these, you are at the mercy of the cloud and risking them stopping at any day.
Philips Hue lights are an absolute privacy nightmare. I say this specifically because of the app you need to use to get their full potential. I run GrapheneOS, a privacy-based operating system, and to get the Philips Hue app working, I actually had to install sandbox Google Play services. Anyone familiar with GrapheneOS knows you have to do that sometimes. The Philips Hue app wouldn’t work from the Aurora Store; it had to come from Google Play, and even then, it is barely stable. It is like Philips Hue wants you to use a device that is 100% integrated with Google services. It is insane.
Don’t just look at the physical smart home product; look at the app it integrates with. Your cell phone is with you all the time, making it the biggest source of data harvesting. You have to think outside the box.
Then you have devices like the Ring Smart Doorbell, which I own. I am locked into the Ring ecosystem because of an active subscription; I renewed for two years right before they hiked the prices in Canada, but it is going to go up eventually. I have also invested heavily in their home alarm system, so I am actively using Ring spyware. Since I am not made of money, I have to plan carefully, but when my subscription comes up for renewal again, I will research a privacy-based alternative and switch both the doorbell and the alarm system. Ring is truly one of the worst. Google Smart Products are also horrible, and I already covered Philips Hue. Even the Samsung Smart Fridge, which I reviewed just as a fun gimmick, spies on everything you put on your grocery list via the app and screen.
Goodness gracious. We are slowly getting rid of our smart home speakers and selling them on eBay. Not all smart home products are bad, but you have to do extensive research to find options focused on privacy. Because I am self-hosting now, I will eventually set up Home Assistant as my core hub to see what can integrate locally without needing to connect back to cloud services where you are spied on and products eventually stop working.
Mobile Tech
Mobile tech is a nightmare in itself. Your phone is with you all the time, tracking your GPS, accessing its microphone and camera, and housing apps like your banking details and contacts. The list of what your cell phone can collect is insane. All I will say is get rid of as much Apple as possible. Do not use an iPhone because you cannot really escape its ecosystem. Instead, use an Android device, but do not load Google onto it. You can actually use an Android device without a Google account, you don’t even need to log in to use Google Maps. Sure, you can’t use Gmail, and Google mobile websites suck, which I think they did on purpose to force people into using apps.
Ultimately, I just recommend GrapheneOS. Whenever people ask me what phone to get, I tell them to buy a Google Pixel because it supports GrapheneOS. I have nothing else to say on that, though if you can wait, Motorola devices might support it in the future. Smartwatches and tablets suffer from the exact same issues as cell phones, collecting an absurd amount of data.
Computers
Looking at my reviews for laptops and computer tech, most of it is fine to a certain point. But if you are using a MacBook, Apple is going to track everything you do. You don’t have to load your Apple account, and you can install apps directly from your browser, but the second you connect that account, they track everything. Apple does not care about security and privacy. When Tim Cook claimed they do, he is openly lying. He just wants to get richer.
As for computers, the PCs I covered came with Windows. Microsoft collects and sells all your data, and I should have done a better job of imploring you to use Linux instead.
Audio Gear
Audio equipment is another interesting category. You might think nothing is wrong there, but the issue isn’t the headphones or earbuds themselves, it’s the companion apps. I was so busy trying to produce high-quality reviews to compete with trash influencers like MKBHD that I didn’t stop to think about how privacy-invading these apps are. Many of them ask to sync your contacts under the guise of voice features like saying “call mom.” That is a massive privacy invasion, and I should have warned you about the conditions required to use those features.
Sometimes the apps even demand GPS location access just to scan for Bluetooth. Yet, if you pair the headphones directly through your phone’s native Bluetooth settings without using the app, it never asks for your location. They design these apps this way on purpose to sell your data, making your headphones a privacy nightmare.
Conclusion
If I am going to criticise anyone harshly, it should be myself. I hope I didn’t do myself any favours here. If you want to unsubscribe after watching this, that is perfectly okay. But for everyone else, I hope you see that my channel has done a complete 180 over the past year. I am not your typical influencer.
I’ve noticed a lot of other creators share this exact same mindset, such as Louis Rossmann, Gamers Nexus, Mental Outlaw, TheHatedOne, and JayzTwoCents, who is actually very consumer-minded. There are people out there genuinely trying to help, and I highly recommend those channels over almost anyone else when it comes to privacy and security, which is much harder to achieve nowadays than you think.
