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

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

#811

Post by idiotsecant »

bbor wrote: post #809
hi_hi wrote: post #733

I guess this is unavoidable on today’s internet, but…reading a story that decries the (admittedly really bad) data gathering techniques of an advertiser, from a site that itself is plastered with adverts…I don’t know the right word here, but it feels a bit shit. Although I’m glad this is getting the visibility it deserves. I hope this hurts LG where it matters and sends a signal to other manufacturers, but I doubt it…

\#BanAdvertising, my friends. It sounds absurd until you think about it for a minute. If billboards and vice ads and this sort of monitoring should be banned, shouldn't it all?

All advertisement is psychological warfare. It's designed to reprogram you to do things you otherwise wouldn't do.

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

#812

Post by johnecheck »

bbor wrote: post #809
hi_hi wrote: post #733

I guess this is unavoidable on today’s internet, but…reading a story that decries the (admittedly really bad) data gathering techniques of an advertiser, from a site that itself is plastered with adverts…I don’t know the right word here, but it feels a bit shit. Although I’m glad this is getting the visibility it deserves. I hope this hurts LG where it matters and sends a signal to other manufacturers, but I doubt it…

\#BanAdvertising, my friends. It sounds absurd until you think about it for a minute. If billboards and vice ads and this sort of monitoring should be banned, shouldn't it all?

How much time, money, and human effort has been spent on the Pepsi/coke advertising arms race?

All for what? To maintain the same market share they've had since the 80s? What a waste.

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

#813

Post by idiotsecant »

digi59404 wrote: post #803
gruez wrote: post #778

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>and it will connect to any open WiFi I've seen this claim made over and over again for various smart TVs, but so far I haven't seen any concrete evidence of this, only random speculation.

I have a Samsung fridge. It’s not a smart fridge, it doesn’t have a screen, bluetooth, or any way to connect to it. I logged into my UniFi stack to monitor devices and it showed up. It had gotten the connection details from my wife’s phone, the other Samsung device and was transmitting data back to Google and Samsung.

What model of fridge?! How did you know the random device on your network was your non-smart fridge? This is a wild story. I want to believe but if it's true I think there's no sane solution other than exploratory surgery on every appliance you buy.

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

#814

Post by bbor »

adithyassekhar wrote: post #787

> They also found where the microphone was software disabled via settings, it was STILL recording things but had the dB level so low that it looked like nothing but when amplified to +50dB later the conversations were actually still there.

Can someone confirm this part of it? I'm highly, highly dubious that these TVs are sending back random ambient conversation -- for one thing, it would be a truly monstrously-huge stream of data, no?

I certainly believe that it sends back data when you use voice commands, ofc (both for advertising and product improvement). But this would be the first real case of something that's been a 100% false conspiracy theory for over a decade, which feels... unlikely. Kinda like someone finding a Sasquatch.

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

#815

Post by fwip »

lrvick wrote: post #785
soared wrote: post #764

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TVs have streaming services, those need internet to function. What else does anyone (average consumer) use their TV for? I don’t want a separate device to plug in and remote just to stream things.

But surely you know the TV will have ads, and spyware and screenshots you every few seconds to send to manufactures, and in some cases even has microphones involved? The apps built into the screen literally meet the definition of trojans which any casual search on most brands would tell you. All avoidable by plugging in an $20 dedicated source device for streaming or whatever. Is saving the $20 really worth it?

Genuine question - are there any $20 streaming sticks that don't put their own advertisements in?

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

#817

Post by gruez »

digi59404 wrote: post #803
gruez wrote: post #778

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>and it will connect to any open WiFi I've seen this claim made over and over again for various smart TVs, but so far I haven't seen any concrete evidence of this, only random speculation.

I have a Samsung fridge. It’s not a smart fridge, it doesn’t have a screen, bluetooth, or any way to connect to it. I logged into my UniFi stack to monitor devices and it showed up. It had gotten the connection details from my wife’s phone, the other Samsung device and was transmitting data back to Google and Samsung.

The far more likely explanation is that your unifi dashboard's device identification logic is broken and is misreporting the device. Otherwise it doesn't make sense for samsung to engage it a massive conspiracy of putting wifi hardware in non-smart devices (driving up the BOM cost), creating a massive botnet that can share credentials between devices, all so they can... maybe run a residential proxy network? Then subsequently detected by anyone who looks at their device list.

Even if you think they're running some sort of massive botnet, the fridge being part of it is still implausible. They probably have billions of phones and tablets alone, plenty enough to scrape/DDoS the entire internet several times over. There's no need to add clandestine hardware into non-smart fridges.

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

#818

Post by drdexebtjl »

fluidcruft wrote: post #786
soared wrote: post #764

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TVs have streaming services, those need internet to function. What else does anyone (average consumer) use their TV for? I don’t want a separate device to plug in and remote just to stream things.

Isn't that what a streaming stick is for? Who needs those complex TV remotes anyway. I've been running on Roku remotes for years and haven't missed anything. Even TiVo remotes are too complex.

Streaming sticks also collect your data. Roku does ACR unless you opt out.

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

#819

Post by anonymousiam »

I've got a 65" LG C2 OLED TV (from 2022) that I hacked with https://rootmy.tv shortly after I purchased it (and before LG updated the firmware to prevent the hack).

It seems pretty safe. When it's on, I can ssh into it. When it's off, it doesn't reply to ICMP pings, and doesn't appear to be using much power.

I guess the newer LG TVs have gone to shit.

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

#820

Post by jcranmer »

johnecheck wrote: post #812
bbor wrote: post #809

Earlier quoted context omitted.

\#BanAdvertising, my friends. It sounds absurd until you think about it for a minute. If billboards and vice ads and this sort of monitoring should be banned, shouldn't it all?

How much time, money, and human effort has been spent on the Pepsi/coke advertising arms race? All for what? To maintain the same market share they've had since the 80s? What a waste.

I have yet to find a graph that shows the market share all the way back to the 1980s, but the market share isn't stagnant--Pepsi's market share has dramatically fallen (about half since 2000), while Coke's share has been pretty stable, although declining somewhat. Pepsi is no longer the second largest soft drink--it was very recently eclipsed by Dr. Pepper.
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