The remedy to that is that the thing will stop working after a while - like how Intel x86 CPUs turn off after 30 mins without their precious spy co-processor[0], or how Diablo 2 Resurrected discontinues working after 30 days of being offline[1]. Of course another remedy is that you're free to buy a similar thing from another manufacturer, that's not completely dropped the ball on the issue. That is, until all of the manufacturers drop the ball, like how the situation is with x86 CPUs and Intel ME / AMD ST. The true remedy would be well thought out, well enforced legislation. But yeah, I'm not holding my breath either.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Management_Engine#Undocu...

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29977673

The remedy for that will be requiring a network handshake to occur on boot.

Oh no, in fact, it’s just around the corner.

https://aws.amazon.com/fr/private5g/

"Luckily" in the US, the carrier oligopoly here won't sell you a cheap IoT plan for cell connectivity, and the "lifetime" plans sold to manufacturers are probably at least $50-100 in volume.

Maybe not on optional treadmills, but that's already here for CPAP machines that insurance pays for - they log data to an SD card in case you don't have reception, but it also has an LTE modem to upload it so the insurance company can check up on you and make sure you're using that machine, or else charge you more money for it.