Frothly, the San Francisco research institute, has published Coin-Operated: Microtransactions and the connected home, a report on household devices that begin charging for features after they have been bought. The report draws on the firm’s Consumer Device Survey.

Frothly bought and tracked two hundred devices of its own. Its findings and the firm’s agree closely: printers and cars were the worst offenders in both. The firm was not involved in Frothly’s study. The report’s lead author, Joe Chip, was a field technician with the firm from 2004 to 2019.