It's almost like we should have strong data privacy laws so companies can't spy on everything we do...
But think of the corporations! Why isn't anyone thinking of the poor withering corporations?!
oh I disabled my "smart" TV's ability to connect to the internet. its a dumb TV now.
it made the mistake of showing me a banner ad while I was gaming. so I promptly cut its balls off in retaliation.
You can run pihole on Ubuntu.
Point all your network traffic on it and you can still use your TV without your tv using you.
You probably can use your tv without it using you, or probably not.
I, too, use pihole. But it does not prevent your data from leaking 100% and never will. And it’s easily circumvented by using other DNS servers or even by connecting to hardcoded IPs. I dont know specifically about TVs, but some manufacturers do that.
The only way to make sure that TV can never spy is to never connect it to the internet.
I’ve never allowed my TV to have an active route to the internet since I bought it in 2019, it’s exclusively fed over HDMI by gaming consoles and an Apple TV.
The thing is, HDMI 1.4 added HEC, so what’s to prevent media players from serving as an Ethernet switch and providing an internet connection to TVs.
So does your isp, and uses that for targeted ads. My pihole is constantly blocking a domain ran by xfinity that collects data for their targeted ad service
I don't think those two facts are related? Your isp doesn't need to connect to its servers from within your local network to track your internet usage. Something else in your network must be trying to connect to that domain
I've really gotta look into pihole.
Me too
It’s really been great
What domain do I can make sure it's blocked?
This
Thanks, looks like it's on the Stevenblack list.
Stupid TVs FTW. If you can’t buy them stupid, give them a WiFi lobotomy.
Mine ain't, I'm using an ancient dumb TV.
I'm not, but I've disconnected the Internet from it. It can try all it wants to send the data to the mother ship.
Soon they may come with cellular capacity. Cars and e-bikes already do.
You gotta Faraday cage it!
Sometimes hundreds of snapshots a second.
That's a pretty neat FPS for a tv.
Yeah I'm calling bullshit on that quote, I'd like to see proof of any smart TV having beefy enough hardware to record anything at 100fps+, and even then what would be the point? Nothing played back on the screen will even have a frame rate and 60fps... I'm sure this is a lazy article mistake
EDIT: I take it back, I talked it out with Gemini and understand the logic and realistic implementation now, it's a dedicated part of the SoC design. Still hate the fact that this is a thing, we just need to spread the word about not connecting your actual TV to the internet at all ever.
The article states that's what the privacy policy sais samsung can sample every 500ms and LG every 10ms. It doesn't really mean they are, but it's definitely possible. A very basic way of detecting content is to take a 1000 pixels evenly spaced out over the screen and store the color values. That gives you something you can match against a database. You don't need to process a 4K screenshot for this.
Hundreds of snapshots a second? So my tv has at least 200 Hz? Or do they snap the same frame multiple times just for fun?
Does anyone know if there's a domain blocklist for smart TV telemetry? If so, I could easily put it into my DNS server, like I already do for ads.
I'd like to continue using my streaming apps without resorting to yet another device. I have an HTPC that runs KODI but I think it'd be a pain to replace all of my streaming apps.
Turn the TV on and keep an eye on the logs. Many of the common blocklist already block that kind of telemetry.
My TV is not a smart TV, it's not spying on me.
Well, maybe a Hisense or a cheap soundbar might have a listening device, but they'll be hard pressed to phone home.
no it isn't. yours might be, but not mine.
The company that made my TV is engaged in copyright infringement, you say? Transmitting copyrighted images over the Internet for profit?
Huh.
It doesn't if you don't connect it to the internet. Fortunately most smart TVs still have HDMI inputs so you can use them as dumb TVs with a PC.
Yep. My TV has not and never will be on the Internet in any way. I picked it for its screen quality, and the fact that it also has "smart" components never even entered into the decision. Because those smart components will literally never do anything.
Part of the reason why I take good care of my little 24" dumb TV. It's on the lower end (poor viewing angles, absolutely no adjustment on the legs) but I still have a use for it, so I won't be replacing it.
The other concern I have with smart TVs is because manufacturers basically install a smartphone SoC, the TV's lifecycle is now the same as a smartphone. Most people probably won't connect a new smart TV box to their discontinued, laggy (thanks to bloated apps) smart TV, the completely functional unit just gets replaced.
We need regulation to be able to unlock these devices and make available the firmware drivers so that after the manufacturer stops support, the community can continue it (and obviously for us hackers, we would strip the system of all telemetry)
Comms must be infrequent bc my domain sink doesn't log anything like that from my tv when I've checked
The built-in OS on smart TVs almost always sucks. The built-in OS on our LG is slower, has less apps, and has less support for HDR and higher resolutions than our Fire stick.
Just don't use it and instead plug in a Fire stick, turn off its tracking, then sideload apps like BeeTV and HDO Box.
I know Amazon has a bad rep from a privacy standpoint but the Fire stick is super cheap compared to its competition and lets you turn off the tracking in one page of the settings menu.
I just don’t own a tv. Getting rid of my entertainment and gaming systems and most of social media was my answer to internal peace. I don’t have streaming either.
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
