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The CIA Spied on People Through Their Smart TVs, Leaked Documents Reveal (2017)

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Re: The CIA Spied on People Through Their Smart TVs, Leaked Documents Reveal (2017)

#131

Post by ovi256 »

dschuetz wrote: post #124

I knew a guy who worked on his paper about smart TVs and their potential exploitation vectors. That was back in 2015. His supervisor wrote that paper off bluntly as "scientifically not relevant". Oh well.

The supervisor can still be right! Scientific relevance and societal relevance are at odds all the time. Just look at cosmology or any other field with very very long term, slim, payoff and huge costs. As much as we curiosity oriented people dislike it, satifsying our curiosity about the origin of the universe has very low impact. The most impact probably comes from the theoretical understanding that results in new engineering capabilities to build new weapons, industrial machines or energy sources. |But then the question can be asked "why not fund that research direction directly ?"

Re: The CIA Spied on People Through Their Smart TVs, Leaked Documents Reveal (2017)

#132

Post by Insanity »

astrange wrote: post #111
test6554 wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have resisted the urge to buy a new tv for 11 years. I own the same 48" non-smart Sony I've always had. I have always felt like the grass would be greener if I were to buy one of those 65" LG OLED tvs, but thank you for setting me straight. This old TV is 5 inches thick, but it turns on in 2 seconds. I hooked an amazon fire tv into one HDMI port. I also have a sonos "connect" hooked up to the audio-out so that I ca…

I have one of those LG OLED TVs and everything about it is just fine. It's perfectly fast; the OS is based on Palm webOS, so it's okay, but you still don't have to touch it. They are regularly for sale at less than half retail price if you wait six months. The only ergonomic problem is devices fighting each other over HDMI CEC; if I turn it on to use the Switch, then the Bluray player likes to turn itself on, force t…

Is that a setting? I think mine gives a popup to say it detected new input but does not switch automatically.

I _think_ so anyway because I almost never have 2 devices attached but seem to recall such a popup. Could be wrong :)

Re: The CIA Spied on People Through Their Smart TVs, Leaked Documents Reveal (2017)

#134

Post by edejong »

verall wrote: post #41
edejong wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are counting on the WiFi module not to be remote hackable?

It is easy to "isolate" wifi module in most smart tv with a screwdriver and about 30 minutes. They use commodity parts so it is normally removable (like in laptops). If it isn't just screw up the antennae so the soc still sees its wifi device pop up but it sucks (ymmv). Not for your grandma but HN can handle it.

Good advice! I’d still rather buy a not-so-smart-tv /display.

Re: The CIA Spied on People Through Their Smart TVs, Leaked Documents Reveal (2017)

#135

Post by ei8htyfi5e »

jonathanstrange wrote: post #122
ei8htyfi5e wrote: post #45

I gave a talk in China 5 years warning about this. http://tech.qq.com/a/20140527/035512.htm I asked vendors to make changes to their products, such as planned obsolescence so if the manufacturer goes out of business and a device doesn't hear from the mother ship for awhile, all internet connections are killed for good. Also, to set smart defaults so that even when not configured, it won't allow this behavior. There s…

I think you forgot the most important feature: Physical on/off switches for cameras and microphones. These should be mandated by law in any device, even smartphones.

This was in the talk. ...and I built these into my cameras that I made at my first startup, Waylens.com. They're super important in convincing people to put a connected camera in their vehicle where sensitive things are mentioned. I wonder why more manufacturers dont do this.

Re: The CIA Spied on People Through Their Smart TVs, Leaked Documents Reveal (2017)

#136

Post by apexalpha »

datenhorst wrote: post #128
jmalkin wrote: post #73

I've gotten nothing out of my Smart TV that I couldn't have gotten from a Chromecast, or preferably, a laptop hooked up to a TV. And I've lost a lot. My TV is slow. When I try to control the volume, sometimes I have to wait multiple seconds. And things stop working all the time and require a reboot. I hate the damn thing. It even comes with bloatware for some reason, games I'll never play that it insists on updating…

In Europe, people have started purchasing so-called public displays instead of Smart TVs and just hook up a Chromecast/Pi/Fire TV Stick to it. This is especially common in countries where one can avoid public broadcasting fees by doing so.

Didn't now the concept but they're tv's without tuners?

Re: The CIA Spied on People Through Their Smart TVs, Leaked Documents Reveal (2017)

#137

Post by datenhorst »

apexalpha wrote: post #136
datenhorst wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Europe, people have started purchasing so-called public displays instead of Smart TVs and just hook up a Chromecast/Pi/Fire TV Stick to it. This is especially common in countries where one can avoid public broadcasting fees by doing so.

Didn't now the concept but they're tv's without tuners?

Pretty much, yeah.

There's a good range to choose from as well these days: https://geizhals.eu/?cat=monplas

Re: The CIA Spied on People Through Their Smart TVs, Leaked Documents Reveal (2017)

#138

Post by INTPenis »

datenhorst wrote: post #128
jmalkin wrote: post #73

I've gotten nothing out of my Smart TV that I couldn't have gotten from a Chromecast, or preferably, a laptop hooked up to a TV. And I've lost a lot. My TV is slow. When I try to control the volume, sometimes I have to wait multiple seconds. And things stop working all the time and require a reboot. I hate the damn thing. It even comes with bloatware for some reason, games I'll never play that it insists on updating…

In Europe, people have started purchasing so-called public displays instead of Smart TVs and just hook up a Chromecast/Pi/Fire TV Stick to it. This is especially common in countries where one can avoid public broadcasting fees by doing so.

You mean projectors? Because that would explain why I rarely see youtube ads on chromecast hooked up to my projector. As soon as it plays on my tablet ads show up.

Re: The CIA Spied on People Through Their Smart TVs, Leaked Documents Reveal (2017)

#139

Post by smarkov »

astazangasta wrote: post #63
celim307 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The pessimist in me think that a determined actor could simply capture non-trigger voice data offline, and bundle it with the rest of the traffic whenever the next trigger word occurs. But I am talking out my ass and have in no way verified any of this

This was my thought too; there doesn't seem to be a way to verify this isn't happening.

If data is being buffered and only sent after the trigger words wouldn't the data transmitted vary depending on how much was said before the trigger word?

Re: The CIA Spied on People Through Their Smart TVs, Leaked Documents Reveal (2017)

#140

Post by m_eiman »

osamagirl69 wrote: post #93
test6554 wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have resisted the urge to buy a new tv for 11 years. I own the same 48" non-smart Sony I've always had. I have always felt like the grass would be greener if I were to buy one of those 65" LG OLED tvs, but thank you for setting me straight. This old TV is 5 inches thick, but it turns on in 2 seconds. I hooked an amazon fire tv into one HDMI port. I also have a sonos "connect" hooked up to the audio-out so that I ca…

Just wanted to chime in since you specifically mentioned the "65" LG OLED", which is the same TV I have (specifically the OLED65B6P). When plugged into the internet it has all of the usual unfeatures (including ads displayed over hdmi input), however if you leave it unplugged from the internet it works great and boots up almost instantly to the last input selected without any fuss. Furthermore, the HDMI CEC commands…

I have the same experience with my LG. It's perfectly fine as a "dumb" screen. I have an Apple TV 4K and a surround receiver connected to it, and CEC works as intended: when I turn on or off the Apple TV, the LG and the receiver do the same.

I was very weary of buying a "smart" TV, but I wanted a 4K HDR one, and the public display market didn't seem interested in providing that.

Happily, the LG boots (or resumes, or whatever it does) very quickly and the only time I have to touch its remote control is if I've had the TV on for so long without using the remote that it thinks nobody's watching and turns itself off. I suppose there's a setting somewhere to change this, but it happens seldom enough that I haven't bothered.

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