Just never connect them to the internet. I just use them as a display for my apple tv.
Smart TVs take snapshots of what you watch multiple times per second
11–20 of 148 posts
Re: Smart TVs take snapshots of what you watch multiple times per second
#12> [...] in their automatic content recognition systems [...] Samsung TVs can take screenshots every 500 milliseconds and LG TVs every 10 milliseconds I wonder how much energy it take to analyze 4k images 10 times a second?
I have to think that whatever they're using this for, it could be done at a much lower data resolution.
They do this to match what you're watching to a database. Think Shazam but with video.
They find what movie, show or whatever you're watching and send it to advertisers with all your metadata, so they can match and track you from an ad impression to you visiting their site to get information and buy.
There's a lot of metadata there to match. If you access their site, for example with your phone, from the same internet connection, they can probably match the information from the TV with one of the tracking cookies on your phone, and then keep tracking you in all the commercial "journey".
This has been already discussed around here because this is one of the reasons smart tvs are so cheap right now, because they're being subsidized by advertisers. Some of the advertisers had in their sites information about their tracking capabilities. I'll try to find that link.
Re: Smart TVs take snapshots of what you watch multiple times per second
#13> Smart TVs from Samsung and LG take screenshots of what you are watching even when you are using them to display images from a connected laptop or video game console By Jeremy Hsu Unfortunately I wasn't able to find a non-paywalled link myself. This _appears_ to reproduce the article text: https://kbin.melroy.org/m/technology@lemmy.world/t/480211
About that, some previous information from a year or two ago shown that they took screenshots even when playing video files from a usb drive.
Re: Smart TVs take snapshots of what you watch multiple times per second
#14Is there a list of those models somewhere? The article is partially paywalled and hard to say which ones.
I think, at this point, we can assume if it has a camera, microphone in the controller, connects to wifi, etc, it will be spying on you in some way. No list needed, just look for displays without those features.
I get around it by using PC displays as televisions, usually hooked up to a thinclient or SBC that I've purpose for media delivery. So, when I shop for a display, any feature beyond an HDMI port becomes wholly unnecessary to me.
Re: Smart TVs take snapshots of what you watch multiple times per second
#15Someone needs to put a network sniffer on a bunch of different TVs and see exactly what traffic they're generating and how much. Sending 120 4k images per minute (or worse, 6000 for the LG) on a residential WiFi connection should be pretty obvious, and it should be fairly easy to block too.
They could be looking for watermarks or match some 'frame hash' versus a database. The spyware traffic could be measured in single digit bytes.
Re: Smart TVs take snapshots of what you watch multiple times per second
#16This makes these screens a bit of an issue when eg accessing your bank. And it should be made clear to people that you must not connect a corporate or government devices to these screens.
(The fact that private citizens _should_ have the same security expectations notwithstanding, corporations and governments have more legal clout)
Re: Smart TVs take snapshots of what you watch multiple times per second
#17Just never connect them to the internet. I just use them as a display for my apple tv.
My TV is a Raspberry 3B+ with a TV Hat and TVHeadend on my Android phone and tablets. My disconnected LG smart TV sits in a corner connected to an old PlayStation. I can use it to watch movies with friends if I want to: I connect to it either my laptop or my tablet with a HDMI cable.
BTW: why a smart TV? Because for only an extra 50 Euro I got a much better screen (subjective assessment) than the best dumb TV on sale when I went shopping for them years ago.
Re: Smart TVs take snapshots of what you watch multiple times per second
#18> Smart TVs from Samsung and LG take screenshots of what you are watching even when you are using them to display images from a connected laptop or video game console By Jeremy Hsu Unfortunately I wasn't able to find a non-paywalled link myself. This _appears_ to reproduce the article text: https://kbin.melroy.org/m/technology@lemmy.world/t/480211
Here's the paper:
Re: Smart TVs take snapshots of what you watch multiple times per second
#19Is there a list of those models somewhere? The article is partially paywalled and hard to say which ones.
If it has any smart features at all, you can be pretty sure that it's spying on you in all sorts of ways.
Re: Smart TVs take snapshots of what you watch multiple times per second
#20Just never connect them to the internet. I just use them as a display for my apple tv.
I think Apple’s strategy here is going to pay off. Provide a box with an actual fast processor in it, a simple Home Screen with no ads, and an OS with no tracking. Somehow this is a revolutionary idea in this industry.
But slowly I’m seeing more people recommending the AppleTV, even amongst enthusiast circles which tend to be rather anti-Apple.