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Samsung TVs May Upload Screenshots for Automatic Content Recognition

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Re: Samsung TVs May Upload Screenshots for Automatic Content Recognition

#271

I'm getting ready to go full Battlestar Galactica in all of my appliances. It's now difficult to find high end washers and ovens without these features. At least right now we can choose not to connect the devices, but what happens if iot LTE connections get cheap enough that the choice is removed altogether, like with Tesla and other high end modern cars? I don't think I'm just being a Luddite. This really seems like…

>what happens if iot LTE connections get cheap enough that the choice is removed altogether.

Narrowband IoT is the target market for that. T-Mobile has a plan where a certified module costs $5 (There is a min order to get that price, but for a large vendor that's not going to be an issue) then $6 p/year as long as you can keep below 12MB per year. But you can keep bw down by shipping the fingerprinting software with the TV and only sampling a small section of the screen (Other TV Vendors have done done this in the past too) and create the matching fingerprints in your server farm (So no need to send a full screenshot to fingerprint the show.

The question is then would $25 added to the BOM cost per device be worth it to the manufacturer (Cost of the module plus 3 years of NB-IoT coverage). Though you could reduce that by getting a custom deal with the carrier where you only pay for data if you actually activate it, then only activate the module if the TV has been in use for X hours without phoning home using the customers own connection.

From a cost perceptive I think we are pretty much already there.

Re: Samsung TVs May Upload Screenshots for Automatic Content Recognition

#272

I'm getting ready to go full Battlestar Galactica in all of my appliances. It's now difficult to find high end washers and ovens without these features. At least right now we can choose not to connect the devices, but what happens if iot LTE connections get cheap enough that the choice is removed altogether, like with Tesla and other high end modern cars? I don't think I'm just being a Luddite. This really seems like…

have you looked into commercial variants? you can get dumb display panels geared toward that use, I'm sure the same is true for fridges, dishwashers, ovens. Aesthetics may be an issue.

Re: Samsung TVs May Upload Screenshots for Automatic Content Recognition

#273
The answer to connected TVs is commercial display. These are "dumb TVs" that you've seen 10K times at airports manufactured by the usual suspects such as Sony, NEC, LG, and yes - even Samsung. They are offered in 4K, have plenty of ports, and are price competitive to smart TVs

https://www.necdisplay.com/category?category=displays#1 https://pro.sony/en_GB/products/small-displays

Re: Samsung TVs May Upload Screenshots for Automatic Content Recognition

#274
post #198

I'm getting ready to go full Battlestar Galactica in all of my appliances. It's now difficult to find high end washers and ovens without these features. At least right now we can choose not to connect the devices, but what happens if iot LTE connections get cheap enough that the choice is removed altogether, like with Tesla and other high end modern cars? I don't think I'm just being a Luddite. This really seems like…

Thankfully it isn't quite that simple for electronics in the US. If it is sold commericially, it has to be registered with the FCC. In this way, you at least know if it has WiFi, LTE, etc, and can see the module that is installed on it. This makes it much easier to go into the device and physically disable the radios on it. Heck, maybe that is something like iFixit could do, have a how to to completely remove radio c…

> This makes it much easier to go into the device and physically disable the radios on it.

Wouldn't opening the device void the warranty?

Re: Samsung TVs May Upload Screenshots for Automatic Content Recognition

#275

I'm getting ready to go full Battlestar Galactica in all of my appliances. It's now difficult to find high end washers and ovens without these features. At least right now we can choose not to connect the devices, but what happens if iot LTE connections get cheap enough that the choice is removed altogether, like with Tesla and other high end modern cars? I don't think I'm just being a Luddite. This really seems like…

Maybe we should just ddos these endpoints, they don't deserve anything better.

Interesting. Rather than restricting what is sent could one just spam them with garbage so they can't distinguish what's real from what's fake?

Re: Samsung TVs May Upload Screenshots for Automatic Content Recognition

#276
post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thankfully it isn't quite that simple for electronics in the US. If it is sold commericially, it has to be registered with the FCC. In this way, you at least know if it has WiFi, LTE, etc, and can see the module that is installed on it. This makes it much easier to go into the device and physically disable the radios on it. Heck, maybe that is something like iFixit could do, have a how to to completely remove radio c…

Can there be a balance? I'd love to remotely control and view the status of my appliances without sending the telemetry to the OEM. Physically disabling all the radios would prohibit this functionality.

Whitelist you IP?

Re: Samsung TVs May Upload Screenshots for Automatic Content Recognition

#277
>>>Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., along with our affiliates and subsidiaries, (collectively, “Samsung”) knows how important privacy is to our customers.

Translated:

Samsung spits in the face of customers and will do everything in it's power to monetize users private information without compensating users in any way, shape or form.

Re: Samsung TVs May Upload Screenshots for Automatic Content Recognition

#278

That sure is one hell of a privacy policy: Information we may collect automatically includes information about: access code , advertising IDs , apps and features you use , app usage information , clickstream data , connections to certain Services , connections to other devices , current software version , device model , device settings , Google Ad ID , hardware model , IMEI number , IP address , log information , MAC…

Practically, a Smart TV is an oversize mobile phone that you use in landscape mode.

In that respect, all ad-supported revenue for a phone is extended to the smart TVs.

Re: Samsung TVs May Upload Screenshots for Automatic Content Recognition

#279
post #15

Stuff like this is the reason I don’t connect smart TVs to the internet. If I need web content on the TV, I can connect my laptop with HDMI. The TV should be no more than a display and speakers with a tuner.

Can't confirm this myself, but in previous threads about similar topics, people noted that some of those "smart" devices probe every open WiFi they find and use that without your explicit consent. So it's not always possible to disconnect them.

Correct thing is to "connect" them to the internet but blackhole them so they cant actually talk to anything. It's what I've done and so far it's blocked a lot.

Re: Samsung TVs May Upload Screenshots for Automatic Content Recognition

#280
Roku has been doing that forever, and now all those cheap TCL TVs are doing it too. Keep this in mind, especially if you use one of these in a productivity context.

https://docs.roku.com/published/userprivacypolicy/en/us

https://test.tcl.com/eu/en/privacy-notices-smart-tv-services...

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