Unfortunately, I need to consent to tracking by the WaPo to find out how much my Smart TV might be tracking me.
Smart TVs like Samsung, LG and Roku are tracking everything
111–120 of 316 posts
Re: Smart TVs like Samsung, LG and Roku are tracking everything
#112I 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…
Just unplug it from the network. That should get rid of most of it. I have an LG smart TV that has never seen the network. I get no ads, no popups, no features, no EULA, nothing. It behaves like a dumb TV. It was the LG 65UH series from Costco.
HDMI cables can double as Ethernet cables. In the future "just unplug it from the network" will mean "just unplug all HDMI devices".
Re: Smart TVs like Samsung, LG and Roku are tracking everything
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
They could create an HDMI condom so you can't have network connectivity over HDMI. Similar to USB condoms. Also... what if they put a 5G SIM card inside the telly? Now that would suck.
That does seem inevitable. Time to build a faraday cage for our TV's.
Re: Smart TVs like Samsung, LG and Roku are tracking everything
#114This seems fairly easy to me. Just don't configure the WiFi. Add a TV box (FireTV, Apple TV, whatever) that you trust.
That FireTV you have plugged in gives the TV an Ethernet connection. So it's more like turn off the WiFi and plug in Ethernet.
Re: Smart TVs like Samsung, LG and Roku are tracking everything
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not sure creating a network without no internet access is going to be a long term solution. It's entirely likely that they will create future functionality in these devices to cycle through open networks and networks to which they have credentials for until they find one with internet access.
I guess you could then add some user-important content to the walled-off network, like a basic SMB share. Maybe it will avoid disconnecting from the user-set network if it has user content. But yes, this isn't a very stable solution.
No vendor will use SMB to check for connectivity. They would check for relevant internet paths.
Though I doubt the companies would be ballsy enough to connect to unsecured networks, if that breaches laws in a country that the tv is sold it may have legal ramifications for the company.
Edit: then again my argument is based on logic and risk, not two factors marketing and sales teams consider very often..
Re: Smart TVs like Samsung, LG and Roku are tracking everything
#116I stopped connecting my TVs to the internet when Samsung started pushing notification ads for GameFly on a (at the time) 3k dollar first gen 4K tv - and they lied and said no they’d never do that. They’ve all lost my trust.
I disabled autoupdates on everything after a smart TV whose dashboard I'd laid out to suit me, auto-updated and insisted on dashboard apps that I never wanted and couldn't delete or hide. Got an Apple TV and have not touched the smart TV features since.
Sounds like Vizio. Five years now and I still re-delete the Yahoo Finance app every couple months.
Re: Smart TVs like Samsung, LG and Roku are tracking everything
#117This seems fairly easy to me. Just don't configure the WiFi. Add a TV box (FireTV, Apple TV, whatever) that you trust.
That FireTV you have plugged in gives the TV an Ethernet connection. So it's more like turn off the WiFi and plug in Ethernet.
Not sure I understand. How does the TV get that through an HDMI cable?
Re: Smart TVs like Samsung, LG and Roku are tracking everything
#118In 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 T…
>I have about 400% more trust of Microsoft and Sony than I do of random smart tv manufacturers
This is a really weak trust based argument. Sony put rootkits on cds (different division of sony, but still). MS has been fighting their users forever now. Ultimately, none of these trust based arguments work. If you care about privacy, use kodi, new pipe etc. Don't try to pick overlords. That's a losing battle.
Re: Smart TVs like Samsung, LG and Roku are tracking everything
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just unplug it from the network. That should get rid of most of it. I have an LG smart TV that has never seen the network. I get no ads, no popups, no features, no EULA, nothing. It behaves like a dumb TV. It was the LG 65UH series from Costco.
HDMI cables can double as Ethernet cables. In the future "just unplug it from the network" will mean "just unplug all HDMI devices".
that's not the point, block it at the router.
What am I missing that makes HDMI cables doubling as ethernet cables a problem for blocking it from accessing the network?
Re: Smart TVs like Samsung, LG and Roku are tracking everything
#120It also is extremely hard to fix a smart TV once it gets infected with a virus. Just don't buy smart TVs. Buy a dumb TV, attach a RaspberryPi or an Intel NUC, install Kodi and enjoy.
Would love to. Who is currently making these dumb TVs? I’m in the market and can’t find anything.