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Smart TVs sending sensitive user data to Netflix and Facebook

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Re: Smart TVs sending sensitive user data to Netflix and Facebook

#111

Post by fake-name »

pkaye wrote: post #98
carterehsmith wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> After some days it popped up a message kindly asking to give it some network access. After a few more days it simply ignored the flight mode and connected to get fresh ads. Yeah that's gross. Btw, Amazon does sell some cheaper ebook readers on the understanding that they will show ads. Was that the case here?

Yes they do sell some ad supported ebook readers. And the price difference is not a lot. $20 savings for months of ads is not worth it.

I have a relatively old ad-supported kindle.

It was fairly straightforward to replace the ad images. Now it shows me cat pictures when turned off.

Re: Smart TVs sending sensitive user data to Netflix and Facebook

#112

Post by ryacko »

mrbonner wrote: post #66
throw03172019 wrote: post #36

I disabled WiFi on my Samsung TV after they were injecting ads into the home screen. Spend $800 to get ads served in their shitty/slow UI.

My Samsung SmartTV randomly turns on itself. Sometimes, we can't turn it on and I have to remove the batteris from the remote, plug them back then it works. The UI is sooo sluggish. I just wish they make a dump TV with superior image quality and let the other streaming devices handling the "smart" features. I will not buy another Samsung electronic product.

You can get a large format displays. The prices are reasonable for forty inch displays with 1080p resolution.

Plan on getting one with a stick PC.

Re: Smart TVs sending sensitive user data to Netflix and Facebook

#113

Post by topspin »

lrem wrote: post #69
topspin wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Can you be sure it is not connected to the Internet? Yes, you can be sure. The network capabilities aren't hidden spy equipment. You can disable WiFi and simply not connect Ethernet. The market for your data is relying on the indifference of 99% of TV buyers to data collection. Manufacturers and advertisers -- at least those not too far down the grey market rabbit hole -- don't care enough about the tiny fraction o…

> and simply not connect Ethernet Ethernet over HDMI is a thing, isn't it?

If anyone ever actually builds a TV that supports it* then the list of things one must actively disable will have grown all the way to two. Again, not hidden spy equipment; no reason to wonder whether your TV is secretly communicating with someone.

* https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/325215/appletv-eth...

Re: Smart TVs sending sensitive user data to Netflix and Facebook

#114

Post by scarface74 »

letitbeirie wrote: post #48
kminehart wrote: post #3

When can I buy a TV without smart features? I don't doubt that my smart TV is reporting some data about my usage, but I barely have a choice in the matter.

PC monitors. Some of them need separate sound, but they very rarely (so far) have smart capabilities, given their use case.

Hard to find a 55 inch PC monitor. You can buy a 55 inch 4K Roku TCL TV for less than $400.

Re: Smart TVs sending sensitive user data to Netflix and Facebook

#115

Post by phreack »

paxys wrote: post #100
mikeryan wrote: post #50

This is a pretty open secret within the industry. Geographic data can be provided via setup (a lot of TV's ask for a zip code on setup) or usually simply via GeoIP lookup. Dig a bit deeper and you get into service provided by Samba TV and or Inscape and you can find that they're sending back frames of video in a lot of cases to track what you're watching. This data is becoming a huge mechanism for subsidizing TV sale…

Not even a secret. A TV manufacturer publicly said a while ago that a TV without "smart" features is more expensive for the company (even if sold at the same retail price) because they cannot make any money from selling usage data.

It was the Vizio CTO, while trying to spin it positively it came out a bit too honest. https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20190114/08084341384/vizio...

Re: Smart TVs sending sensitive user data to Netflix and Facebook

#116

Post by favorited »

isostatic wrote: post #35

Just wait for TVs and other gadgets with built in 5g and iot sim cards that you can’t simply “skip network” on.

I was shocked when a medical device I got had a built-in CDMA modem to send telemetry to my insurance company. Thankfully there's an airplane mode.

Re: Smart TVs sending sensitive user data to Netflix and Facebook

#117

Post by obmelvin »

mikeryan wrote: post #50

This is a pretty open secret within the industry. Geographic data can be provided via setup (a lot of TV's ask for a zip code on setup) or usually simply via GeoIP lookup. Dig a bit deeper and you get into service provided by Samba TV and or Inscape and you can find that they're sending back frames of video in a lot of cases to track what you're watching. This data is becoming a huge mechanism for subsidizing TV sale…

Roku enabled TVs very clearly send back frames of what you are watching. I've been watching YouTube casted via chromecast plugged into HDMI (NOT the built in chromecast, I have verified multiple times) and the Roku will give me a full width toast saying to press `*` to watch the full movie or some similar contextual option

I was pretty put off the first time this happened. That said, I don't even know if I looked through the settings to see if I could turn it off..

Re: Smart TVs sending sensitive user data to Netflix and Facebook

#118

Post by AlphaWeaver »

throw03172019 wrote: post #36

I disabled WiFi on my Samsung TV after they were injecting ads into the home screen. Spend $800 to get ads served in their shitty/slow UI.

I started blocking the ad servers at the network level, and now my home screen on my Roku TV is very clean!

Re: Smart TVs sending sensitive user data to Netflix and Facebook

#119

Post by pacala »

throw03172019 wrote: post #36

I disabled WiFi on my Samsung TV after they were injecting ads into the home screen. Spend $800 to get ads served in their shitty/slow UI.

Five years from now, 5G will be widely deployed, with a connection density of 1M/sqkm, 1000 times larger than 4G. The TV will connect directly to the 5G network without asking for permission. For your convenience [TM].

Re: Smart TVs sending sensitive user data to Netflix and Facebook

#120

Post by jacquesm »

arcticbull wrote: post #92
cameronbrown wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> After a few more days it simply ignored the flight mode and connected to get fresh ads. Worrying. "Flight" mode exists for a reason and should not be overridden.

Flight mode exists because the FAA applies unsafe-until-proven-safe methodology to everything flight related (as they should). If flight mode mattered at all planes would be falling out of the sky on the regular, many people just leave their phones on the whole trip. The only reason I turn my phone off is because it wastes a lot of battery as it tries to manage tower hopping the whole time. Planes are getting blasted…

> Planes are getting blasted by RF in the cellular bands continuously from the ground, too, so this is taken into consideration in the design process.

It's a totally different affair if you are receiving a signal by a 100 Watt transmitter at 10 Km or a signal from a 1 Watt transmitter at 5 meters distance. The 1 Watt transmitter will overpower anything in its band with great ease and any dirt on the spectral output will have the same effect in other bands. Note that most cellphones will crank up their output if they can't connect to a base station that they can receive.

Of course plane designers will still do what they can to reduce this nuisance but leaving our phone on makes it harder than it should be. Please turn your phone off or to airplane mode and consider it a very small price to pay for flying an airplane.

Yes, flight mode does matter, no it probably won't crash a plane but does it have to before you would consider following a very simple rule?

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