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I don't quite understand the issue here. The tap water is still free and doesn't require anything, just press the button. They added an extra feature that is paid, which requires maintenance and power to run. I can see how it could be paid by the venue hosting this device, but you can't really blame the provider.
Personally it's the part where it requires an app and a subscription with no option to just insert a damn coin. Apart from being needlessly complex it also shuts out people who don't have a smartphone or don't want to install random crap.
It is the app that makes them the sweet money. It will scrape your device for useful information (which you agreed was a-okay in the TOS simply by installing) and then sell that data multiple times over. This is why companies want an app for every damn thing.
Apps can't "scrape your device for useful information". Modern apps are sandboxed and only have access to what you gave them permission to. Usually, they just gather the information from within the app. What you clicked, when you clicked, why you clicked, etc. If you give the app permission to location data and contacts, then they'll grab those, too, but you always have the option not to.
This is why companies, like Google, Amazon, Meta, try to push their own devices, they can have full access to your data.
Sure, it's a fair criticism that they are trying to push a subscription. Coin is a little archaic, I personally never even have cash with me, but they could have an NFC tap for a single purchase.
But their subscription approach also makes sense and would benefit some frequent visitors. I assume it means you can use the subscription on all of their machines. And there's simply no easy way of doing that other than using an app. Could be a web app with QR code, I suppose.
Yup, it's the lack of options that's bothering me. It's either tap water or a full blown app+subscription, nothing inbetween.
The reason I mentioned coins is because I think that cash should always remain an option even though I'm personally almost always using digital payments as well.