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Smart TVs take snapshots of what you watch multiple times per second

newscientist.com

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Re: Smart TVs take snapshots of what you watch multiple times per second

#101

Post by 0cf8612b2e1e »

tecleandor wrote: post #27

Now that I found some old links... This began to be more public since Vizio published their 2021 Q3 earning reports and it was made public that their profits from advertising and users data was more than double than what they made selling devices [0]. Roku themselves have said that they are in the Ad business, not in the tech business, and they were getting around $40 per user a month (also in [0]). All these ACR (au…

  Roku themselves have said that they are in the Ad business, not in the tech business, and they were getting around $40 per user a month (also in [0]).
That is a mind blowing stat. Obviously advertisers are willing to pay, but I am curious hope much the granular information is worth.

If someone watches anime/Hallmark/cooking genre content, do you need to know which specific shows?

Re: Smart TVs take snapshots of what you watch multiple times per second

#102

Post by hellisothers »

bestouff wrote: post #79
_mlbt wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple TV is really your best option if you want privacy. Google is primarily an ad company that wants to learn as much about you as possible to target those ads.

Nope. A Kodi box is really the best option here.

Only if you insist on control over minutia over everything else including ease of use, reliability, and simplicity.

Re: Smart TVs take snapshots of what you watch multiple times per second

#103

Post by hellisothers »

yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #87
Grazester wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is all nonsense.

Given that Amazon’s Sidewalk network is a thing, I think a more extensive counter is needed.

Making a claim with no references to back it up doesn’t require doubters to provide evidence to the contrary.

Re: Smart TVs take snapshots of what you watch multiple times per second

#104

Post by martinflack »

rightbyte wrote: post #15
shiroiushi wrote: post #10

Someone 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.

Yes. A sequence of consecutive hashes would match to a TV show or movie identifier in a local database; and that identifier is all that needs to be uploaded until there's a new TV show or movie identified.

Re: Smart TVs take snapshots of what you watch multiple times per second

#105

Post by EasyMark »

left-struck wrote: post #82
mcherm wrote: post #49

I'm in the market for a new TV. Is there any source that lists models that do NOT engage in this sort of spying? I am willing to pay a significant premium and forego convenience features, but I lack the expertise to review products myself.

I’m a privacy advocate but I just can’t pass up the otherwise amazing value of some of the smart tvs that have been released in the last few years, the size you can get for an reasonable price is incredible and for the first time is actually suitable at the viewing distance most people view a tv at. The colour, contrast and brightness is fantastic. Having said that I added this block list to my router https://github.…

Yeah, I just never let it hook up to my wifi

Re: Smart TVs take snapshots of what you watch multiple times per second

#106

Post by hellojesus »

nickburns wrote: post #95
flacebo wrote: post #34

Smart TVs are a curse (from a consumer perspective). A separate smart device makes much more sense. People usually replaced their TVs when they broke, which could be 6-8+ years. Nowadays as their already slow hardware becomes even more obsolete, streaming apps are no longer updated and start to break, new ones are not released, etc. they go ahead and buy a new one. You also have to accept all kinds of crappy agreemen…

What makes you think an internet-connected streaming device couldn't and isn't just doing the same thing? I otherwise completely agree with everything else you've said.

Presumably you could just cut it off from the internet by dns filtering or setting up a vlan to only allow it to communicate to your locally hosted plex/jellyfish instance.

Re: Smart TVs take snapshots of what you watch multiple times per second

#107

Post by retSava »

angoragoats wrote: post #89
trckdhsbr wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If anyone has any more info on this I'd be very interested in seeing it

The parent post is probably referring to Amazon Sidewalk, a mesh network formed from Echo devices and other Amazon smart ~~garbage~~ devices, launched in 2021: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/05/amazon-devices-will-...

I don't think that's the same. Amz Sidewalk is very slow, low bandwidth over sub-GHz. What GP is thinking about is probably along the lines of, if not getting Internet access by the owner, willy-nilly connecting to any open wifi network it finds, and uses that.

But "meshing" with other apparatus from the same manufacturers is a clever and evil idea - perhaps another TV from the same brand is in range and has Internet, then they can proxy that way.

All these probably break some regulations or laws.

Re: Smart TVs take snapshots of what you watch multiple times per second

#108

Post by bathtub365 »

zrobotics wrote: post #90
Grazester wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is all nonsense.

I mean, I remember people saying similar things about Google scanning Wi-Fi SSIDs to track their location. There was a point in time where people were saying that was conspiracy theory thinking.

That doesn’t mean this case is true.

Re: Smart TVs take snapshots of what you watch multiple times per second

#109

Post by unsnap_biceps »

allturtles wrote: post #91
flacebo wrote: post #34

Smart TVs are a curse (from a consumer perspective). A separate smart device makes much more sense. People usually replaced their TVs when they broke, which could be 6-8+ years. Nowadays as their already slow hardware becomes even more obsolete, streaming apps are no longer updated and start to break, new ones are not released, etc. they go ahead and buy a new one. You also have to accept all kinds of crappy agreemen…

> Not to mention even the most expensive TVs come with baffingly slow hardware and software. $2k devices can take 10+ seconds to load the menu with 4 options, where you can modify picture settings. Incredible. Yes it's really curious how much worse technology has gotten in some dimensions in recent decades. Analog TVs would respond to inputs effectively instantaneously - if you changed the channel, the very next fram…

Analog tvs would change in the middle of frames if you swapped channels.

Digital tvs are cursed to wait for the next key frame in the video to start displaying and providers are a-okay with very long waits for key frames as it improves their encoding efficiency and thus allows them to squeeze more channels on the lines.

It's apples to oranges sadly.

Re: Smart TVs take snapshots of what you watch multiple times per second

#110

Post by sickofparadox »

mcherm wrote: post #49

I'm in the market for a new TV. Is there any source that lists models that do NOT engage in this sort of spying? I am willing to pay a significant premium and forego convenience features, but I lack the expertise to review products myself.

Sceptre is the last company I am aware of making modern TVs without smart nonsense in them targeted at consumers. All the other brands have converted completely over. I have had trouble with availability recently though.

https://www.sceptre.com/TV/4K-UHD-TV-category1category73.htm...

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