Software-gating
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Related to forced app download, software-gating or software companion is a method to control device features through external means in consumer electronic hardware. It is characterized by a dependence on that external software/app to configure or control some part of a device.
Reasons it exists
Pro-consumer
Software-gating is not inherently anti-consumer as it can provide useful in some scenarios. Examples of this being:
- Customization: It allows the user to finely tune device behavior, which would be really hard to implement with hardware buttons and switches. Examples of that being a piece of software to program the behavior of RGB keyboards, mice or hue-changing lamps.
- Security features: Authentication devices that utilize software dependency to create security benefits for consumers.
Signs for pro-consumer software companion:
- Community software: The software vendor is open to user feedback, transparent about its roadmap, and is generally kept in check by its users, rather than the other way around.
- Free software license: The software vendor provides the source-code of the software, released under an open-source license, either copyleft or permissive. This protects user choice, for example if the company goes into bankruptcy, or the software has privacy issues, because it can be fully modified and legally redistributed by an independent party.
Anti-consumer
Software-gating becomes a problem when it limits the consumer's choice, their only options being privacy invasive, cloud-dependent, or intentionally limited in favor of paying a subscription.
Examples of anti-consumer software-gating:
- Unnecessary app: What could have easily been done with hardware switches or displays, is now instead done with an external app in order to exert more control over the customer. This is often marketed as a way to provide extended functionality, while in reality it is a solution in search of a problem.
- Privacy invasive: The app fully tracks its users to sell their data to advertisers.
Signs for anti-consumer software:
- Features on demand: The software vendor restricts features in purchased hardware for the sake of a subscription-based business model. This inherently creates most of the problems below.
- Company-first software: The software does not release their source-code, nor is not open to user feedback, and risk making it hard to use if the company goes into bankruptcy, or the software has privacy issues, because it cannot be modified and legally redistributed by an independent party.
- Software dependence: Permanently locked bootloaders that limit what a consumer can run on their device. This means being dependent on the goodwill of the software vendors to respect the user's privacy, freedom of choice (for what is still left of it).