2023 incidents

Amazon allows publishers who publish e-books through their store to alter their existing works, and push such updates to the copies of e-books in user libraries, without explicit user permission, or…

A home owner was locked out of their Amazon account for nearly a week, after a delivery driver from Amazon misheard an automated message from their Eufy doorbell. The delivery driver had a package to…

Amazon PhotosPlus was a subscription-based service that offered users the ability to display their chosen photos on their devices as the "primary content." Additionally, it provided 25 GB of Amazon…

Anker Battery Bank Recall covers four U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recalls of Anker portable power banks between March 2023 and September 2025, totaling over 1,683,000 units pulled…

In May 2023, ASUS removed a tool they provided for unlocking the bootloader of their Zenfone and Republic of Gamers (ROG) smartphones. This tool was mentioned in advertising to appeal to tech-savvy…

"If companies can modify internet-connected products and charge subscriptions after people have already purchased them, what does it mean to own anything anymore?" — Brian X. Chen, The New York Times

Costco has a pharmacy website that members can use to mail order pharmaceuticals for people and their pets. Costco uses a back-end tracking code which allows for a broad scope of information to be…

Disney+ implemented a household device restriction system that creates massive inconvenience for legitimate, paying customers to access content on the Disney+ streaming service. The streaming service…

In February 2023, Dyson terminated its relationships with third-party authorized repair centers, eliminating local repair options for all Dyson products and forcing customers to use Dyson's own…

EA has implemented a change to the anti-cheat of several games after release including: EA SPORTS WRC, Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare 2, Battlefield 2042, Battlefield V, and Battlefield 1. This…

Electronic Arts (EA) is a former video-game developer and now publisher founded in 1982 by Trip Hawkins. It is well known for its simulator titles under the Sim series (The Sims, SimCity, MySims…

Elgato has removed the option to download or update plugins from their marketplace for their product, Stream Deck, without an Elgato account. Following this change, Stream Deck users must have an…

In February 2023 Ford filed a patent for in-vehicle advertisement presentation systems. A copy of the patent can be found here: These could combine historical user data with audio signals coming…

On Feb. 23, 2023, Ford put forward a patent application for SYSTEMS AND METHODS TO REPOSSES A VEHICLE. This allows a bank or lender to activate/disable various components of a vehicle, should the…

GoIt is an Ukrainian-based online company providing international IT-related educational courses. Some of its courses come with an "employment warranty" (and are advertised as such). This warranty…

Honda owners who purchased vehicles with built-in navigation systems can't download offline map updates without first connecting the car to the internet, activating Online Services to transmit the…

IFTTT initially offered a subscription plan marketed as a "lifetime" deal. Users were promised that the price would stay the same as long as the plan was active. After about three years, however…

In Jones v. Ford Motor Co., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on October 27, 2023 affirmed the dismissal of a putative class action alleging that Ford infotainment systems automatically…

The LG G3 OLED, a flagship television priced at $3,600+, is configured out of the box to collect and sell user data without explicit consumer consent. The TV gathers data on viewing habits and…

In October 2023, Mazda issued a DMCA takedown notice against an open-source integration that allowed Mazda vehicle owners to control connected car features through the Home Assistant home automation…

Mercedes initially marketed and sold their EQE 350 and EQS 450 models with a lower power output than the hardware was capable of delivering. The company later introduced a paid software upgrade that…

Since 2024, Meta platform users, chiefly Facebook and Instagram, are facing erroneous permanent account suspensions, most commonly under allegations of breaking the platform's rules on Child Sexual…

Meta (formerly Oculus) prevented developers from providing updates to programs for Quest 1 through their store in addition to previous restrictions on 28 February 2025.

Philips Hue is a product line of smart lighting equipment by Signify (former lighting division of Philips). A change was announced in 2023, which requires users of the Hue app to create an account to…

In August 2023, it was alleged that Qantas was selling tickets on its website for flights it knew were cancelled. The allegations suggested that 884,000 customers had been sold tickets for cancelled…

On July 1st 2023, an announcement was made that there were serious issues with accessibility of the main Reddit website, specifically concerning blind moderators. This forced blind and…

The Footlong Pass is a subscription service for the Subway app initially released in August 2022. The subscription allows subscribers to theoretically get 50% off the price of one footlong sandwich…

SumUp, a British technology company headquartered in London, sells card readers and a number of online payment and bank account systems for merchants and businesses. Although their services have…

Tesla produced various automotive vehicles that were involved in several safety-related incidents. In some cases where design or manufacturing errors were involved, the company allegedly stated the…

United Kingdom's Online Safety Act 2023 (OSA) is a set of laws that claims to protect children and adults online. The act applies to search services and services that allow users to post content…

On 12 September 2023, Unity implemented sweeping changes to the pricing model for its Unity Engine that would affect all developers using it, forcing them to either adopt Unity's per-download fee or…

On 22 November 2023, Broadcom Inc. completed the acquisition of VMware for $61 billion. Perpetual licenses for the software were ended and changed to a subscription-based model.

The Waves Update Plan (WUP) is an annual paid maintenance plan offered by Waves Audio for its perpetually-licensed audio plugins, bundles, and applications. Each new product purchase includes one…

On May 31, 2023, Zoom updated their terms of service to allow force arbitration and collection of customers data for the purposes of training their artificial intelligence companion, only allowing a…