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I’m Terrified of My New TV

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Re: I’m Terrified of My New TV

#101

Post by pmoriarty »

zanny wrote: post #83
pmoriarty wrote: post #68

The author is afraid of his smart TV, but probably doesn't think twice about carrying around a smartphone. Smartphones have virtually all of the capabilities that make the author fear his smart TV, only the smartphone is, if anything, even more dangerous because it is more ubiquitous. People carry their phones around everywhere, and the phones are usually constantly on and equally capable of monitoring your every wor…

If you get hardware without proprietary radios (which, yeah, is impossible) and install only free software on it, you aren't lost. I use Paranoid Android, and I know my S4 can still use its radio to spy on me, but at least the OS itself isn't.

Enjoy your relative freedom while you can.

In the so-called Internet of Things we're headed for, computers may be all-pervasive, wearable, embedded in everything, unobtrusive, practically indetectable and inescapable.

They are likely to be always communicating with the other computers all around them, and privacy will be a dream of the past.

Unfortunately, counter-surveillance technology does not appear to be keeping pace with surveillance technology, and since most people don't yet seem to care about being surveyed, there isn't much of a market for it.

On the other side, most companies (and their oh-so-helpful tech enablers) love to spy on their users, and see nothing wrong with doing so (or at least don't let any moral qualms stand in the way of a profit). So there is a lot of incentive for spying and little incentive for not spying.

Consciousness is slowly starting to emerge among the general population that this is happening, but there doesn't seem to be much of a backlash. Few are taking a stand.

Re: I’m Terrified of My New TV

#102

Post by transfire »

Perhaps we can all just start being someone else. Make up a few aliases and use those for different accounts. Some mass schizophrenia might really do wonders. We could make it a "thing" with young people and a rally cry for the disenfranchised. We could even get grandma in on the act in the name of "online security".

Re: I’m Terrified of My New TV

#103

Post by tmuir »

bruce511 wrote: post #19

I'm probably not normal, but frankly I would just leave it unplugged from the Internet. At the end of the day my current tv does what I need to do (ie act as a big monitor) without an internet connection. Given the number of devices already floating around here for browsing the web, I don't really need my tv to do that. For streaming I have Chromecast or whatever. I get that tv makers want to sell me something, but t…

I can't believe that people buy integrated media players with their TVs. They are usually multiple hundreds of dollars on top of the base TV model price, have terrible interfaces, and are crippleware, using apps with very few services.

I suppose the economics aren't as straightforward, but I'm of the opinion that Chromecast, Roku, AppleTV, etc are the next layer of crippleware. A small form factor Windows box or a Mac Mini are superior to every set top media player on the market in every category but price. I've never seen a better interface on a media appliance. A wireless mouse always trumps a remote. But most importantly, you don't need the manufacturer to strike deals with Netflix/HBO/Hulu, you just need a web browser. The best interfaces for all of those services are the full websites. Not to mention all of the other features you get with a full blown computer.

Re: I’m Terrified of My New TV

#105

Post by sounds »

authatheist wrote: post #92
ElDiablo666 wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm totally fine with your exciting-as-fuck politics but it will be difficult to get people to that point any time soon, me thinks. I think the problem is that when you say things like "these things don't work" you're glossing over the key to why they don't work: people aren't organized. That's it. It may not be glamorous or fun like tossing over the pigmobile but it's proven to work every single time throughout hist…

He already pointed out that voting or writing to "your" representatives doesn't work, but ypu're still calling for some sort of democratic solution. Please stop.

Actually it's interesting to watch you take the contrary position on an internet forum, but without a concrete call to action. That was his point: what are you going to _do_?

I work on a solution to this particular problem every day. I don't just write on the internet about it.

Put up or shut up.

Re: I’m Terrified of My New TV

#106

Post by bcx »

tedks wrote: post #47

We need a Butlerian Jihad against surveillance. You know what will never stop this? Posts on hacker news. Letters to your congressman (LG can donate a fuqton more to his re-election campaign than you can). Voting with your dollar (people who know what a privacy policy is are few and far between). You know what will? Taking these TVs into the street, smashing and burning them. Mobs storming Best Buy and smashing the s…

Out of curiosity how many aspects of this TV could also be applied to your laptop.

1) It has a webcam

2) It has a microphone

3) You install software all the time that has access to both of these things.

3) Practically everything you do on it is tracked, cookied, and shared. (Sure some companies probably respect Do-Not-Track, but everyone?)

4) Do you realize that facebook knows your age, all of your friends, your demographics, and has like buttons on most pages on the internet. They are also about to launch a big ad platform to help others leverage that knowledge to place ads.

5) Google knows everything in your inbox.

Your Xbox has gesture control and voice command too.

If you are going to smash TVs, you probably should smash your laptop, and your xbox.

I don't think a few burning TVs in the streets are going to change anything. You'll need to think bigger :-)

Re: I’m Terrified of My New TV

#107

Post by npizzolato »

Canada wrote: post #55
javert wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that's not the argument RMS has made. The morality of RMS is an abstraction that is disconnected from empirical truth, just like any religion is. Maybe he would have done some good (other than the software he's written) if he had actually made the argument that we need open source for privacy reasons.

He did. Privacy is merely a byproduct of having the freedom to control your computer. We should all feel deeply offended at not having that control, if we know what's good for us. Looking at the current state of affairs, I'm starting to think RMS wasn't radical and fanatical enough!

And you probably feel that way because you're deeply intimate with the inner-workings of computers and so having "control" means something to you. That's not true for most of the population. Let's replace "cars" with "computers" in the freedom slogan. I know nothing about cars, and to be honest, I don't really care to. Cars help me get from A to B, and I would gladly trade freedom to tinker with the inner workings of my car for greater convenience in accomplishing my goal (getting from A to B). I only have so much time in the day, and figuring out how my car works simply doesn't fit into the equation, and it wouldn't interest me even if it did. Now replace car with computer and you have a good idea of what an even larger portion of the population thinks.

Re: I’m Terrified of My New TV

#108

Post by sounds »

bcx wrote: post #106
tedks wrote: post #47

We need a Butlerian Jihad against surveillance. You know what will never stop this? Posts on hacker news. Letters to your congressman (LG can donate a fuqton more to his re-election campaign than you can). Voting with your dollar (people who know what a privacy policy is are few and far between). You know what will? Taking these TVs into the street, smashing and burning them. Mobs storming Best Buy and smashing the s…

Out of curiosity how many aspects of this TV could also be applied to your laptop. 1) It has a webcam 2) It has a microphone 3) You install software all the time that has access to both of these things. 3) Practically everything you do on it is tracked, cookied, and shared. (Sure some companies probably respect Do-Not-Track, but everyone?) 4) Do you realize that facebook knows your age, all of your friends, your demo…

If you're really into avoiding these, at least on a laptop you can:

1) Use a blob-free OS like Trisquel. Heh, your webcam may not have drivers in Trisquel. Or tape over it.

2) Trisquel also.

3) Trisquel also. Another good alternative is TAILS.

4) Use IceWeasel (Firefox source code) and the RequestPolicy extension.

5) Use DuckDuckGo or another anonymizing proxy.

I agree with you though, that we must think bigger than buying TVs so we can smash them.

Re: I’m Terrified of My New TV

#109

Post by rqebmm »

diminoten wrote: post #94
tedks wrote: post #47

We need a Butlerian Jihad against surveillance. You know what will never stop this? Posts on hacker news. Letters to your congressman (LG can donate a fuqton more to his re-election campaign than you can). Voting with your dollar (people who know what a privacy policy is are few and far between). You know what will? Taking these TVs into the street, smashing and burning them. Mobs storming Best Buy and smashing the s…

I just don't understand why I'm not allowed to give away my privacy for convenience, in your eyes. I think you'd be surprised at a) how many people realize they're having their data collected and b) how few people care. Is it a risk? Yes. So is driving a car, but I'm not willing to put up with the inconvenience of not being able to drive somewhere.

This is true, but there's a bigger problem than the mere fact that a lot of data is being collected. It's how transparent companies are about the data that's collected, along with how long it's stored and who has access to it.

One might be fine with having their TV scan their face, but does that mean they're okay with that scan being transported to someone else's servers? Who now owns that information? Can the manufacturer sell that to someone else without telling you?

This kind of information shouldn't be buried in 46 pages of legalese.

Many people aren't aware that Siri functions by sending your voice off to Apple's servers for processing, let alone knowing whether that means that Apple now owns those recordings of their voices. Maybe they do, maybe they don't, but the Average Joe isn't going to read the 50 page ToS, let alone be able to accurately parse it. And if Apple chooses to keep that data for themselves, they aren't exactly incentivized to tell people that they now own this information and can resell it.

Re: I’m Terrified of My New TV

#110

Post by chez17 »

tedks wrote: post #47

We need a Butlerian Jihad against surveillance. You know what will never stop this? Posts on hacker news. Letters to your congressman (LG can donate a fuqton more to his re-election campaign than you can). Voting with your dollar (people who know what a privacy policy is are few and far between). You know what will? Taking these TVs into the street, smashing and burning them. Mobs storming Best Buy and smashing the s…

Real life is boring, sorry. Posts like this are all talk. It's a fantasy that makes you feel good inside. Go ahead. Throw the first brick.
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