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GamersNexus and LG: Or why rooting your TV is a bad idea

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Re: GamersNexus and LG: Or why rooting your TV is a bad idea

#131

Post by hdgvhicv »

wewewedxfgdf wrote: post #50

I'll save you the time and effort trying to work out the point being made: GamersNexus did an investigation which may overstate the privacy threat posed by LG smart TVs.

Well as I do like saving time I’m certainly it going to watch an hours long video about someone installing their own software on a computer and doing things with it.

If they had shown what a normal LG collects that would be fine.

If they rooted it to install a new root certificate so they can MITM traffic and see what’s actually been sent that would be interesting.

From what I read it’s “you can use a Turing complete computer with network and microphone access to do things”. I mean sure.

What I want to know is what does it actually do

I would love smart TVs to have a “no smart functions” option, and I know that they don’t because that’s part of the ad tech economy so beloved by HN.

What I want to see is what does it actually do and perhaps how can it be blocked technically.

Maybe it’s in the video, but videos are terrible ways to communicate this, and it seems to be mainly breathless nonsense and possibilities.

Re: GamersNexus and LG: Or why rooting your TV is a bad idea

#132

Post by hdgvhicv »

p0lychromatic wrote: post #31
lovich wrote: post #18

> Now, what he’s showing can be pretty scary. I wouldn’t want any attacker to be able to record me without knowing. But it’s important to remember the context here: earlier in the video, Wendell rooted the TV. He has full access to everything on it. To run those commands and programs, he had to log into WebOS via SSH and run them on the device. He didn't show remoting calling those commands, nor was this done on an u…

Some attacks shown on the video (like the "silent" voice recording) are initiated by the people in the video manually running those commands via SSH. This is the major issue with this video: It mixes stuff done by LG (ACR) with stuff done via rooting (audio recording). And now people think LG is 24/7 recording your conversations and uploading them somewhere. This has not been proven.

Completely agree. If anything is suspect Lg paid for this video to confuse people between their legitimate actions (mdns), legitimate crimes (acr) and the theoretical possibilities (unrequested audio) to make anyone complaining about smart TVs sound like a conspiracy nut.

Re: GamersNexus and LG: Or why rooting your TV is a bad idea

#133

Post by hdgvhicv »

sersi wrote: post #92
newsclues wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fresh account defending a corporation.

It's not a question of defending a corporation, it's that publishing a video that mixes true facts with facts that are not quite right weakens your argument and makes it easier for the corporation to control the narrative by pointing anything that's disingenuous. And to be clear, I'm not defending LG here. Their terms and conditions are terrible, 'We know who's in the LG household… we own the glass' is not something…

If they had used the public attention on real problems that would be something of note.

Intercept what a normal tv does, show it uploading your voice recordings, your local network device names, etc.

Don’t bury it under conspiracy theory. Had this contained what actually went on I suspect it would be treated far more seriously. But then the video would be shorter and fewer ad views for the “influencer”.

Re: GamersNexus and LG: Or why rooting your TV is a bad idea

#134

Post by psd1 »

cassianoleal wrote: post #128
psd1 wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your broken waking machine drawer is an orthogonal problem, and perhaps not specific to one corp. Plastic parts break but, OTOH, overbuilding consumes resources with diminishing utility. A deep spare parts market is a cost. May i suggest basic home repair? Two techniques that work in many cases are: - "welding" with a soldering iron, using cable tie as a filler rod. You'll want good ventilation and a sacrificial tip…

> Your broken waking machine drawer is an orthogonal problem Perhaps, but LG has proven problematic to deal with. To give you an idea, I tried directly with them at first. They gave me an official website to search for the part. It wasn't available. They then game me 2 or 3 third-parties to search. None of them had the part available. I emailed and called. They would at best say "not available". Eventually I got LG t…

Yep, that sounds over-engineered for questionable benefit. Ty for the exposition. Sounds like something i would junk, too. I'm angry on your behalf.
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