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Smart TVs like Samsung, LG and Roku are tracking everything

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Smart TVs like Samsung, LG and Roku are tracking everything

#31

Post by myrakle »

butz wrote: post #12
myrakle wrote: post #8

I use the PCWRT router, and it allows me to block the spying by blacklisting the relevant domains. https://www.pcwrt.com/2018/08/how-to-use-your-router-to-bloc...

Any way to build something like this myself, e.g. using Raspberry Pi or DD-WRT supported router?

DD-WRT would probably let you block domains. Pi-hole might be useful too. To be effective, you need your black or white listing to be device specific, so that you can block your smart TV in whatever way you want to without affecting other devices.

Re: Smart TVs like Samsung, LG and Roku are tracking everything

#32

Post by zigzaggy »

myrakle wrote: post #8

I use the PCWRT router, and it allows me to block the spying by blacklisting the relevant domains. https://www.pcwrt.com/2018/08/how-to-use-your-router-to-bloc...

Can I flash my own router with pcWRT or do I have to purchase one on Amazon? Is this similar to DDWRT? Or a fork of some open source project?

Re: Smart TVs like Samsung, LG and Roku are tracking everything

#33

Post by walrus01 »

In my opinion you should not use ANY of the smart features of a "smart" TV. Don't give it your wifi key and don't put it on your LAN.

I have about 400% more trust of Microsoft and Sony than I do of random smart tv manufacturers. I also have a fairly high degree of confidence that the xbox one and PS4 software will remain up to date with security patches, and address critical issues quickly. I have no confidence for TVs.

Microsoft and Sony have teams of lawyers who've drafted the data collection/data sharing/opt-out policies for what their current generation game consoles track and phone home about. I've seen entirely too many reports of "smart" TVs that start reporting your entire viewing habits, and/or displaying unwanted ads.

Use the TV as a dumb display and hook it up to a PS4, Xbox One, and/or home theatre PC.

Re: Smart TVs like Samsung, LG and Roku are tracking everything

#34

Post by wvenable »

AdamJacobMuller wrote: post #2

I had a very nice Sharp Aquos TV for a long time. One of the first reasonably priced 1080p 65" TVs. It had absolutely no "smart" features, which was perfectly fine with me. I have my TV hooked up to a home theatre system and have my devices (PS4/AppleTV/XB1/Nvidia Shield) hooked up to that. I recently upgraded to a LG 4K OLED TV. It's an absolutely gorgeous TV, but, I absolutely lament the "smart" features of this TV…

> My point is, if I can't even do this properly, normal people have a near 0% chance of disabling tracking.

The other point is that all these features are advertised on the box (Netflix, Alexa integration, etc) but you can't even use them unless you accept those EULA prompts.

Re: Smart TVs like Samsung, LG and Roku are tracking everything

#36

Post by ownagefool »

AdamJacobMuller wrote: post #2

I had a very nice Sharp Aquos TV for a long time. One of the first reasonably priced 1080p 65" TVs. It had absolutely no "smart" features, which was perfectly fine with me. I have my TV hooked up to a home theatre system and have my devices (PS4/AppleTV/XB1/Nvidia Shield) hooked up to that. I recently upgraded to a LG 4K OLED TV. It's an absolutely gorgeous TV, but, I absolutely lament the "smart" features of this TV…

Yeah, I'd really like slightly better support for plugging in something smart into a dumb TV.

In the UK, if my shield would show freeview TV channels I'd probably never need to leave the interface, and thus I'd be happy to lock a TV into a shield slave.

Unfortunately it just doesn't work like that for us over here though.

Re: Smart TVs like Samsung, LG and Roku are tracking everything

#37

Post by detaro »

Buttons840 wrote: post #35
gumby wrote: post #7

Surely this is a non-issue if you don’t connect the TV itself to the internet?

Doesn't HDMI share internet connection? So if you connect any HDMI device with an internet connection then your TV will have one too?

HDMI optionally does support that, but almost no devices actually do.

Re: Smart TVs like Samsung, LG and Roku are tracking everything

#38

Post by Buttons840 »

detaro wrote: post #37
Buttons840 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't HDMI share internet connection? So if you connect any HDMI device with an internet connection then your TV will have one too?

HDMI optionally does support that, but almost no devices actually do.

In the future, won't it become increasingly difficult to keep your TV disconnected? Anything you connect to it will provide it with an internet connection.

Re: Smart TVs like Samsung, LG and Roku are tracking everything

#39

Post by detaro »

Buttons840 wrote: post #38
detaro wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HDMI optionally does support that, but almost no devices actually do.

In the future, won't it become increasingly difficult to keep your TV disconnected? Anything you connect to it will provide it with an internet connection.

Don't see any evidence of that actually happening as of yet. Would more expect that they'll just make them stop working entirely without a connection, instead of adding fancier ways of connecting them.

Re: Smart TVs like Samsung, LG and Roku are tracking everything

#40

Post by tekstar »

AdamJacobMuller wrote: post #2

I had a very nice Sharp Aquos TV for a long time. One of the first reasonably priced 1080p 65" TVs. It had absolutely no "smart" features, which was perfectly fine with me. I have my TV hooked up to a home theatre system and have my devices (PS4/AppleTV/XB1/Nvidia Shield) hooked up to that. I recently upgraded to a LG 4K OLED TV. It's an absolutely gorgeous TV, but, I absolutely lament the "smart" features of this TV…

I recently bought an LG OLED as well.

I never connected it to my network and never will.

  It was a dark pattern during setup.  The options were to connect via LAN or WIFI, and only by scrolling into "nothing" did a skip option appear.
This ImO is the only option and even then I bet it's trying to exhilarate data by like trying to connect to a phone or high frequency audio or something.
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