141–150 of 346 posts
So what happens if you just don't plug in the network cable or setup WiFi? How does it gather anything?
FBI van with free wifi goes through your neighborhood, the TV happily auto-connects to it and dumps all its data. How can we make the wifi module inside the TV unusable?
My "smart tv" stays disconnected from the WIFI. Problem solved.
The article author complains if cameras and microphones in the TV are disabled, it would not function properly. I say, that's the only way it would function properly! I'm ok with my remote, thank you very much, and I don't want to converse with my TV or dance for it. I want it to entertain me, not the other way around.
(These numbers were stats collected internally by a minor TV manufacturer)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
yeah, but there are answers for a laptop to nearly every one of your bullets. I can't modify the hardware on a television reasonably, I can't change the operating system reasonably, nor can I modify the loaded software. I can't choose to run the server that it phones home to. I can remove my laptop's webcam, or order one without. Same for a mic (lenovo/dell/hp have 'government specials' -- laptops without mics/cams/a…
To most people everything feels like a walled garden, their phone, their computer, their TV. Sure you can install software on them, but very few people actually install new operating systems on anything at a low enough level that it would actually help their privacy.
As the technological elite, something like a TV that has so much embedded junk seems extra walled off. But I'd argue that most people have no clue how to stop websites from tracking them or to protect their privacy on any device. Most people have no IDEA what a cookie or an IP address is.
You happen to be familiar with software. To many people putting a piece of thick tape over the TV screen's camera, and microphone might be much easier than installing TOR. Dealing with the underlying embedded OS is probably super annoying, but hopefully you can still use your TV as a direct display using something similar to a Roku.
If a market for do-not-track devices exists someone will fill it, but I worry that the general population will have no idea that it's necessary or even care.
http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/your-tv-watching-you-l...
Nothing happened.
Vizio has a much less intrusive system. Some of their TVs have "Vizio apps", which can trigger popups on the screen based on the content being played. This can be completely turned off. They don't have microphones or cameras, just remotes. Still, the TV does phone home to Vizio HQ.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
On the other hand, computers are how we communicate with and consume information from others; they are essentially how we view the world. Thus what power the companies-in-control have to limit, persuade, and otherwise manipulate the population who uses computers is far greater than what they can do with cars.
To come back to the car analogy, if the manufacturers had the same type of power those making computers and their software did, they would be able to remotely control your car to make it go not where you want it to, disable it if you tried to drive to "non-approved/licensed" locations or if you attempted to drive faster than they allowed, carried more passengers than licensed for, etc.
Of course, convenience and control are not disjoint either - and more control can also lead to greater convenience, as users customise the software they use to make their use of it more convenient.
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 disagree. I think voting with your dollar works pretty well actually. Case-in-point: The recent uproar over the Xbox One's Kinect. The original plan called for the Kinect to be a required component and for the microphone to always be on. Thanks to consumer backlash, Microsoft backpedaled on the always-on requirement pretty quickly, and they've started selling Kinect-less Xbox Ones as well.
Part of this is because Sony did an excellent job of capitalizing on these mis-steps with the PS4. Because there's no reason a competitor can't do the same against these smart TVs. You don't need customers to read the privacy policy; you just need to tell them that "the TV is telling Uncle Sam when you have sex."
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…