Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick • Hacker News Board

Re: Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick

#171

Post by lotsofpulp » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 9:00 PM UTC

SoftTalker wrote: post #145

> Despite repeated warnings from the FBI and security industry leaders about the security and privacy risks of using these streaming devices, major e-commerce providers like Amazon, Best Buy, Newegg and others continue to sell hundreds of different models and brands I scanned the comments and I didn't see anyone suggesting that these companies should share any responsibility for selling these harmful products. Why is…

Probably because most people don’t equate the damages from causing bodily harm to whatever these ad clicking networks do.

Voters don’t like seeing themselves or their kids get hurt, but they do like lower cost live sports.

Re: Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick

#172

Post by Arainach » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 9:01 PM UTC

deepfriedbits wrote: post #136

ta988 wrote: post #127

A familly member had one of those (he had to pay a yearly subscription in addition to the stick). Network would be unusable as soon as it was on for anyone else, and it also tried to scan things on the local network. It was indeed connecting to all kind of services all over the world (and saturating some tables in the router doing so which blocked other clients). Definitely evil, definitely on purpose.

Reading this, I caught myself wondering how we distill what's in this excellent write up into something the average consumer understands, including the dangers from buying and using devices like this. Is it a graphic that's shared? Something else? I am sure we all know or have heard of people with these devices that promise free streaming.

The bigger problem is convincing them to care. Botnets are abstract - where's the pain to them? Ad farms? That's "just hurting big corporations".

Remember, a significant portion of the population got angry (often violently so) when just asked to wear a mask to protect their neighbors. And the threat there was significantly easier to explain.

Re: Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick

#173

Post by acdha » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 9:01 PM UTC

rng-concern wrote: post #99

pavel_lishin wrote: post #6

> generic TV boxes that promise unlimited content streaming for a one-time fee I don't want to blame the purchasers of these things - who are some of the victims - but at the same time, it does seem like a Too Good To Be True situation.

I know a few people who buy these, and they kind of know what they're doing. They just try and not think about it too hard. It reminds me of the saying: "It Is Difficult to Get a Man to Understand Something When His Salary Depends Upon His Not Understanding It". If these people thought about it for a few minutes, they would understand, but they choose not to, as ignoring it is too advantageous. I admit I was tempted,…

In the 90s, there was a cottage industry selling CDs of bootleg software at swap meets and flea markets. A guy my dad knew was almost condescending to anyone who paid for software despite having been hit by viruses multiple times because it was so much cheaper. Even having to deal with a client(!) who naively called the vendor support only to be informed that they hadn’t actually purchased a license wasn’t enough to get him to resist that savings.

Re: Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick

#174

Post by brewdad » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 9:02 PM UTC

mhurron wrote: post #85

Terr_ wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps they grew up in a time/environment where "if it was that bad they wouldn't be allowed to advertise it", and they're still using that old calibration?

My falther-in-law was less that and more, if I can get away with it, it's actually legal. Many know their fake, and do it because they can get away with it. That was his justification for a satellite descrambler, they're sending me the signals, obviously I'm allowed to.

There's an old Carlin joke about "If a cop didn't see it, I didn't do it."

Re: Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick

#175

Post by r_lee » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 9:02 PM UTC

bigmattystyles wrote: post #131

mikestew wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Upon connecting it to the internet… I hesitate to blame the victim here, but why on earth would you do that? “$40 Chinese-made” didn’t give you pause?

To be fair, everything is Chinese made. I would be even the Apple TV and NVIDIA Shield are made in China and if a state actor is determined to get a malicious payload in....

Made in China and random Chinese brands are two very different things

Re: Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick

#176

Post by kube-system » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 9:03 PM UTC

weberer wrote: post #92

nvme0n1p1 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OTOH - TV, radio, and YouTube are all unlimited and free. Why not streaming? There are lots of people alive who grew up during the days of broadcast TV and radio. I get why they might not understand the difference.

There are a ton of legitimately free IPTV streams. You can watch them through most media players like VLC without having to download anything shady. https://github.com/iptv-org/iptv

That is chock-full of pirated content.

Re: Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick

#177

Post by pibaker » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 9:03 PM UTC

pavel_lishin wrote: post #6

> generic TV boxes that promise unlimited content streaming for a one-time fee I don't want to blame the purchasers of these things - who are some of the victims - but at the same time, it does seem like a Too Good To Be True situation.

> it does seem like a Too Good To Be True situation

It's difficult to judge the price of media products. We have legal music streaming services that charges you an album's worth of money a month and lets you listen to millions of songs. You can pick up old AAA games for less than ten bucks. I'd say when people say that price tag, they don't think they get scammed into being a part of a botnet. They think the device manufacturer cut a good deal with the media rights holders.

Re: Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick

#178

Post by burgreblast » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 9:03 PM UTC

Google clutches pearls and is shocked! Shocked! That anyone would violate its policies (while it pockets 30% of the fraudulent revenue). Shocked!

And they would have caught them but those crafty criminals spoofed the user-agent. So how _could_ they know?

Re: Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick

#179

Post by Dylan16807 » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 9:04 PM UTC

jrm4 wrote: post #75

Thrymr wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I do not see problems with fake ad clicks and have no sympathy for ad companies. I am not shedding any tears for the ad companies, but I don't exactly expect or want a consumer device to be doing this in the background without the owner's knowledge.

Sure. And you'll quite literally never be able to get any meaningful reduction in this practice unless you attack it at the level of big, publically known companies; the warnings about these local dinky things I suppose are not harmful and help individuals a bit -- but I'm concerned they give the entirely false impression that the extremely similar stuff coming from the big boys is definitely a-ok.

Reduction in what practice? Are there big companies doing ad fraud?

I want big companies to stop spying on me, which is a completely different issue.

Re: Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick

#180

Post by al_borland » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 9:04 PM UTC

SoftTalker wrote: post #145

> Despite repeated warnings from the FBI and security industry leaders about the security and privacy risks of using these streaming devices, major e-commerce providers like Amazon, Best Buy, Newegg and others continue to sell hundreds of different models and brands I scanned the comments and I didn't see anyone suggesting that these companies should share any responsibility for selling these harmful products. Why is…

One of the main value propositions for retailers in a world of endless cheap garbage being sold online, is to vet products so customers can trust that what their buying is from a legitimate company and not junk or stuff like these streaming sticks.

This is the problem with being an “everything store”. “Everything” includes a lot of things most consumers would like to be protected from, and assume they are due to the long history of retailers standing behind the products they sell. That history seems to have come to an end. They only stand behind it enough to offer a refund if there is a problem, not to ensure it’s good before selling it.