171–180 of 246 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes; PiHoles are used for far more than just blocking smart TVs. The difference between browsing the web at my house and browsing away from home is so stark that it's almost not worth browsing most sites if I'm not behind it.
I run a simple VPN at my house alongside pinhole. You can block ads anywhere that way.
Praise be the folks that curate these lists. Even without a pi-hole you can plug these into any firewall for your brand(s). More annoying is the 15 second "home menu" that pops up on my OLED every time it is turned on. I almost always forget to manually dismiss it before I set the remote down and there's no option I can find to disable it. I would pay a premium for a TV with no internet connection.
There is a solution for which time is running out but is currently still possible. You can find someone selling a used, perfectly good television made in the era right before every single TV was a "smart" TV.
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They don't always support the DRM apps want for 4K streaming.
Wait, so you're saying that DRM has become so ingrained in modern tech that if I wanted to connect a firestick to a Dumb Display(No electronics other than to drive the display), if that Display doesn't have DRM functionality then the app won't load or play content even though the firetv has the DRM?
Hopefully Software Freedom Conservancy's lawsuit against Vizio will lead to people being able to replace the OS pre-installed on smart TVs with standard Linux distros, so that blocklists like this are no longer needed. Of course even standard Linux distros have privacy issues, but they are easier to deal with than the ads and other issues in pre-installed vendor operating systems. https://sfconservancy.org/copyleft-c…
Best case, only Vizio will comply, and only if it turns out Vizio violated the GPL, and only if SF Conservancy resists any potentially lucrative attempts to get the case settled out of court.
https://sfconservancy.org/copyleft-compliance/principles.htm...
Its pretty clear that Vizio violated the GPL, the question to be answered by the case is who gets to enforce the GPL.
If Conservancy win this case, then they get the precedent set that any recipient of GPLed binaries gets to sue for GPL compliance. That precedent applies to any person or company that distributes Linux or other copyleft code on hardware or elsewhere. That means any person who buys Linux hardware can sue if it doesn't come with source code. Potentially that means many more possibilities of GPL compliance suits, maybe even class action ones. The threat of that and the actual suits in turn will hopefully lead to much higher amounts of GPL compliance.
If Conservancy lose this case, then the copyright holders still get to sue for GPL compliance and I assume Conservancy will switch to pursuing Vizio in this way.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
They don't always support the DRM apps want for 4K streaming.
Wait, so you're saying that DRM has become so ingrained in modern tech that if I wanted to connect a firestick to a Dumb Display(No electronics other than to drive the display), if that Display doesn't have DRM functionality then the app won't load or play content even though the firetv has the DRM?
Content obtained via torrent played, and still does, at 1080 perfectly well though, if you are looking for a workaround. I currently pipe stuff to the TV from my media array via Kodi on a Pi.
(I do actually pay for Prime, though mainly for the delivery options, and Netflix, but still consume their content "my" way more often than not)
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Part of the problem is that it's a rather terrible, leaky, and easily-worked-around hammer. It mostly only continues to work because they haven't bothered to do simple things to prevent their more technical users from blocking it.
I previously had some Roku devices in my house and they immediately went into a restricted VLAN not for the least of reasons that their ToS/privacy policy stated I was agreeing to give them permission to collect data about my network and send it back to them. Whatever that means. Roku devices hardcode 8.8.8.8 DNS in their software. So a Pi-Hole would be useless in a typical config. Evident by the constant hammering o…
Are they fussy about where responses come from? If not then you can redirect to your local filtering DNS service. If they do "protect" themselves that way then I'll add them to the list of devices that I'll never knowingly connect to my network.
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> the most ill thought out "privacy" feature Whose privacy? DoH helps to protect billions in revenue for the ad network that funds Chrome, Firefox, Safari and web standards. A better web will need a different revenue model. In the meantime, here's a maintained guide to blocking DoH with pfsense, https://github.com/jpgpi250/piholemanual/blob/master/doc/Blo...
Many of the biggest ISPs in the US are actively monitoring DNS queries, collecting the data of which sites you visit, and packaging it for sale to ad networks and data brokers. DoH stops that.
People really are gulible aren't they...
DoH is a not or a privacy feature. It simply changes who is collecting your data and makes it harder for responsibile network operators to protect their users under the guise that the big tech companies are really protecting the users from the network operators and "big bad ISPs".
Ironic given the billions big tech is making from that data.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Part of the problem is that it's a rather terrible, leaky, and easily-worked-around hammer. It mostly only continues to work because they haven't bothered to do simple things to prevent their more technical users from blocking it.
I previously had some Roku devices in my house and they immediately went into a restricted VLAN not for the least of reasons that their ToS/privacy policy stated I was agreeing to give them permission to collect data about my network and send it back to them. Whatever that means. Roku devices hardcode 8.8.8.8 DNS in their software. So a Pi-Hole would be useless in a typical config. Evident by the constant hammering o…