Live data from Hacker News

216M Spy TVs – The LG Smart TV Problem [video]

youtube.com

741–750 of 1001 posts

Re: 216M Spy TVs – The LG Smart TV Problem [video]

#741

Most TV sets should not normally need microphones, and if they have that in some models (as long as there are models without), then there should be a hardware switch to disable them. However, "continuously sweep home networks, map secondary devices, and log microphone audio while appearing to be turned off" is also stealing and wasting your power.

Every speaker is also a microphone

Speakers can act as part of a useful microphone circuit but you're missing all the amplifiers and ADCs and other stuff to use it as one in any sane speaker driver circuit. They'd have to intentionally add all that, which maybe they would, but it'd be easier to just stick a tiny $0.05 all in one microphone chip on there.

Re: 216M Spy TVs – The LG Smart TV Problem [video]

#744

Why would you ever connect a TV to the internet in the first place?

The average person's house has a gateway/router/wifi thing from their ISP, a smart tv connected to the internet with microphones, and one of those iptv piracy boxes that's actually the source of all the residential proxy ips.

Convenience over all else is what 99% of people are doing.

Re: 216M Spy TVs – The LG Smart TV Problem [video]

#745

Why would you ever connect a TV to the internet in the first place?

Because it is a 'smart Tv', and it asks to get connected to the internet during setup?

That being said, I have an old LG Tv (pre-android, forget what they call the os), and I never connected it, opting instead to hook up a firetv stick .... (who knows what bad crap they might be up to btw).

But the point is, we are a minority, most people go the path of least resistance.

Re: 216M Spy TVs – The LG Smart TV Problem [video]

#746
post #558

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> my conclusion after dealing with them for many years is they will lie, cheat, and steal to get whatever they want Honestly, it's not even that extreme in most cases. I think it's usually not malice, it's incompetence. That's why I don't trust big companies with my data. Nothing to do with some CEO's evil plans, but more to do with the hundreds/thousands of mid-level "not my job" or "doing my best" workers who are a…

> I think it's usually not malice, it's incompetence. Sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice, and should be treated accordingly.

why not both?

Re: 216M Spy TVs – The LG Smart TV Problem [video]

#747

Why would you ever connect a TV to the internet in the first place?

The average person's house has a gateway/router/wifi thing from their ISP, a smart tv connected to the internet with microphones, and one of those iptv piracy boxes that's actually the source of all the residential proxy ips. Convenience over all else is what 99% of people are doing.

Residential proxying seems a good trade for piracy to me. However, there's a chance it will attract attention of some authority, who (although proxying itself is legal) will see your piracy box and arrest you for piracy. However, this doesn't seem to happen in practice, perhaps because residential proxying is so common.

Re: 216M Spy TVs – The LG Smart TV Problem [video]

#748

Here are LG's contract terms for appliances.[1] They are awful. Not only can they listen in. You have a contractual requirement to tell everyone in range of an appliance that they may be eavesdropped upon. CONSENT REQUIREMENT: You acknowledge and agree that it is your sole responsibility to obtain all necessary consents from any third parties whose voices may be captured by the Product and to notify household members…

tempted to go into my nearest big box electronics store and then sue them when they don't tell me the LG tv's they have on display are eavesdropping on me.

Do it

Re: 216M Spy TVs – The LG Smart TV Problem [video]

#749
post #386
post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never understood why any of the smartness had to be built into the TV in the first place. Sure, it's useful for the first year, and then the seriously underpowered hardware they installed into it will have trouble with just about anything. I bought a Philips Ambilight OLED TV probably over 8 years now. Brilliant tv, great quality, I still see no reason to replace it at all. But its built in AndroidTV is garbage.

Because it’s extremely profitable for them to serve ads and sell PI. Kind of like how the airline industry makes more money off credit card shenanigans than actual plane tickets.

Not relevant to the discussion but to your comment, Freakonomics Radio claimed "airline industry makes more money off credit card shenanigans" was not true

https://freakonomics.com/podcast/is-your-plane-ticket-too-ex...

WSJ and Wendover claim it is true.

Post reply on HN