You sit down to relax, put on your favorite show, and settle in for a night of binge-watching. But while you’re watching your TV… your TV is watching you.
Smart TVs take constant snapshots of everything you watch. Sometimes hundreds of snapshots a second.
Welcome to the future of “entertainment.”
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At this point I’m just going to assume George Orwell was a time traveler. He’s been right about everything so far.
I watch TV through my computer using Jellyfin. Am I at danger?
Nope
Other than your PC or Mac spying on you, you are in no danger.
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
What domain do I can make sure it’s blocked?
Id also like to know what lists hes using
It’s on https://raw.githubusercontent.com/StevenBlack/hosts/master/hosts
I also have additional lists from firebog.net, and I use jacklul/pihole-updatelists to maintain it.
I’m using like 30 block lists with over 1,900,000 blocked domains. There is a site that had a bunch of blocklists and I just grabbed most of them
This
Thanks, looks like it’s on the Stevenblack list.
I’ve really gotta look into pihole.
Me too
It’s really been great
Can I get some more info. Do you know what device on your network is asking for said address?
Roku: has its own problems, but I dont use the smart tv features and turn them all off especially the wifi. It doesnt talk to my isp and ive never got requests from it.
I think it’s my LG TV. But it has its own service that I also block.
Here is the service from xfinity that I’m talking about. It’s relatively new to my network and has increased my blocked percentage by a lot. Mind you, I have 1,900,000+ domains on my blocklist
Are you using isp provided hardware?
My experience with said items has been poor. Literal open doors to your network.
I’m using my xfinity router/modem in bridge mode to my router.
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?!
European liberals are trying to weaken gdpr
YOUR tv is spying on you. MY tv has no smart capability.
How does that help me though?
Disconnect it from the internet…?
Is every comment in the world supposed to cater to you? Are people allowed to add to discussions without consulting you first?
Is it adding to discussions or just posturing? Much like heavy’s comment was about their issues, Lost_My_Mind’s was also about their own situation. Why is the latter acceptable and the former not?
My assumption is not because it promotes discussion, but because it’s something that’s more people emotionally agree with.
Yeah it contributes to the discussion with the simple solution on how not to be spied on by your TV, in an admittedly patronising way.
Yikes, I didn’t know I was being hostile, sorry I hurt your feelings.
You will never be forgiven!
I probably have some bad karma :(
Pal, it’s way beyond bad karma at this point!!!
I think they are inviting you over to their place to watch some (dumb) TV?
Finally, some good TV :)
no it isn’t. yours might be, but not mine.
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.
The article says the TVs still capture input and do recognition from external sources so using an external device is not helping.
Edit: Unless your tv is not connected to the internet.
The TV can still connect via weave, Amazon sidewalk, or other mesh networks through your neighbors doorbell or thermostat or whatever… Even if you never connect it, it could still report. Have to open it up and destroy the antennas.
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.
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
If they were recording so much couldnt tv makers be held liable for recording another companies property.
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.
I guess I’ll stick with my 2012 Toshiba 55" dumb TV.
No it’s not.
Still got an old Panasonic plasma from 2010 and it’s going strong.
But I am aware of the “wonders” of post-purchase monetization, which is how they’re printing out so many of these cutting edge OLED big screens for surprisingly low initial purchase prices
Stupid TVs FTW. If you can’t buy them stupid, give them a WiFi lobotomy.
There has to be a youtube guide to giving WiFi Lobotomy
Just create a black hole network at your house and connect all ‘smart’ appliances to that. Block all traffic at the router level. This prevents them trying to connect to open mesh networks and also provides the benefit of cataloging all the traffic
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.
Apple TV is watching you 😁
HEC feature enables IP-based applications over HDMI and provides a bidirectional Ethernet communication at 100 Mbit/s
I think the bandwidth is too slow for HD/4K Streams.
I am sure the 100 Mbit/s must also be theoretical maximum, i would be impressed if practical cables supports even half the orignal specs
for streaming, yeah, for tracking its plenty
for streaming, yeah, for tracking its plenty
100Mbit/s is plenty for streaming even 8k
What 4K TV can I buy that doesn’t do this guys help? Or should I stick to monitors???
You can buy any TV. Just turn off the tracking in the settings and plug in a streaming stick.
I got xiaomi, opened it up and disconnected the Bluetooth / wifi card. Connect it to a linux device and now it is a shitter version of a dumb tv. It’s crazy how smart tvs really really suck at being dumb. But it does work once you get used to some annoying quirks.
Tip: connect a cheap air mouse/keyboard to it as a remote
Sceptre still makes TVs that are just that, no underlying smart OS
TY!
I mean… Just don’t hook the TV up to the internet. Don’t join your WiFi network on the TV.
Kind of a simple solution.
You can’t activate the warranty without it. Then once it knows it can go online it will constantly harass you.
“You can’t activate the warranty without it” That’s illegal in most of the world
Who said
Calm down, it’s a TV.
No it’s not! I had a goddamn Sony tv and it wouldn’t let me change certain settings unless I connected it to the internet! They try to force your hand!
Do you remember the model number? I would like to research this.
What about connecting to a mobile/theter and change password after you adjusted your settings? 🤷♂️
Doesn’t work anymore. They do dark mesh networks.
Until the cost of a sim card w/service is less than the revenue they generate from it. Which I fear is scarily close.
Look for Signage Displays. They’re basically TVs with different software.
Never heard of those before. Thanks
