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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

#341

Post by mrweasel »

kungito wrote: post #322

Does this happen with Chromecast as well? I'm totally fine with disconnecting my tv since I only use it via Chromecast anyways. Smart tv makes no sense to me simce they are all 10x shittier than Chromecast

The spying is one thing, but you're right: SmartTVs doesn't make sense, because the software sucks.

If Sony, Phillips or some other manufacture made a SmartTV with software that rivalled the AppleTV, or even just a Chromecast, then it would make some sense to save the money from the AppleTV and buy a better TV.

The thing is that all of the SmartTVs I tried are slow and confusing. You're better off buying a cheaper TV and getting the $200 AppleTV HD.

If you factor in the cost of developing shitty software, then maybe there would be more profit in just release a new dumb TV.

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

#343

Post by cm2187 »

m-p-3 wrote: post #265
paxys wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

As long as I can keep the TV offline to operate it I'm fine with it. The day it needs to be online to work is where I'll be seriously pissed enough that I'll return it without hesitation.

Like Sonos did. And I did what you said. Into the trash can.

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

#344

Post by ctack »

lrem wrote: post #53
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.

An acquaintance attempted that with Kindle, by keeping it in flight mode. 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. Edit: I've checked with my wife who has an ad supported Kindle for over a year and keeps it in flight mode for months at a time. It never did that to her. So either Amazon c…

Nothing I've purchased matches the level of outright disgust I feel for the Kindle and it's ads.

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

#345

Post by rkop »

sjwright wrote: post #220
move-on-by wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any way to turn it off? Or perhaps block a specific domain via pihole?

Don’t let your TV access the internet at all. Smart TV interfaces are almost uniformly worse than set top boxes (one or more of: bad UI, slow CPU, weird quirks, few updates) so you should avoid it anyway. The current Apple TV (which I cite only because of familiarity) has a great UI, every major app, and robust HDMI-CEC support so you might never have to touch your TV’s remote again. And Apple respects your privacy.

>And Apple respects your privacy.

And you really believe that?

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

#346

Post by cm2187 »

ghostpepper wrote: post #312

I would love to update my 10 year old 1080p Philips non-smart TV to a 55" or so 4K HDR screen but I don't want any of the smart features. Does anyone know of any manufacturers selling high end "dumb" TVs? For now I'm comfortable using my appleTV but I like the fact that I can disconnect it at any time. I want a TV that will simply display whatever signal it receives without any connectivity required.

As long as you don’t connect it to the internet, can’t do much harm.

Though HDMI has evolved into a supper chatty protocol with information going both ways. HDMI doesn’t allow a TV to access the internet connection of a laptop or ps4 connected to it, right?

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

#347

Post by chillydawg »

dontbenebby wrote: post #246
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…

>This data is becoming a huge mechanism for subsidizing TV sales and the interactivity is being looked at as a huge opportunity to recoup some of the ad spend being lost via streaming and fewer 30 second spots So what are the options for a consumer willing to pay for privacy? Will console manufacturers be more respectful for example? (I've considered a console to serve as a bluray player / host OS for streaming apps…

I was watching a ripped Spiderman years ago on my PS3 and the PlayStation refused to play it after 10 mins with an antipiracy message. This was via a network video server. Don't see why Sony would have rolled back that feature since.

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

#348

Post by sjwright »

rkop wrote: post #345
sjwright wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don’t let your TV access the internet at all. Smart TV interfaces are almost uniformly worse than set top boxes (one or more of: bad UI, slow CPU, weird quirks, few updates) so you should avoid it anyway. The current Apple TV (which I cite only because of familiarity) has a great UI, every major app, and robust HDMI-CEC support so you might never have to touch your TV’s remote again. And Apple respects your privacy.

>And Apple respects your privacy. And you really believe that?

Pretty much, yes. Because respecting my privacy fits their business model.

Consider that even the most trivial thing that makes Apple look bad gets leaked. If Apple was selling your private information, it would have leaked long before now. Also their financial reports show no indication of revenues that could be associated with private information marketing.

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

#349

Post by cm2187 »

dreamcompiler wrote: post #280
pacala wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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].

At which point I hope there will be websites describing how to take the TV apart and disable the 5G modem. Or somebody will invent a small short-range backhaul-less 5G spoof microcell you can put next to the TV that will confuse the TV's modem into connecting to nothing. Or just wrap the TV in a Faraday cage. But keeping the screen visible might make that tricky.

We will just wait for the next Zuckerberg interview to see how he dealt with his smart TV at home. Better to learn from people who really care about their own privacy.

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

#350

Post by sjwright »

oger wrote: post #297
sjwright wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A website that catalogued the misbehaviours of the various smart TV operating systems (and the easiest methods of defeat) would be handy here. E.g. Some TVs will honor wifi off setting. Or alternatively setting the TV to use the Ethernet port. Or if it needs something on the other end, set up old underclocked Raspberry Pi as a basic router/DHCP server that connects to nothing; power it with TV's USB port. If you've g…

A Pi-Hole is good to have in every household. Takes minutes to set up and makes sure that queries to unwanted domains end up in the land of /dev/null

A pi-hole only works against adversaries that rely upon DNS, or haven't been coded to connect directly to "trusted" public DNS servers.

(I'm almost astonished that advertising networks haven't switched to using raw IP addresses everywhere.)

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