Smart TVs sending sensitive user data to Netflix and Facebook

Post by rainbowzootsuit » Thu, Sep 19, 2019, 1:53 AM UTC

topspin wrote: post #20

kminehart wrote: post #3

When can I buy a TV without smart features? I don't doubt that my smart TV is reporting some data about my usage, but I barely have a choice in the matter.

> When can I buy a TV without smart features? There is a limited selection of 'dumb' TVs in the world. The 50-inch Sceptre E505BV-FMQK has no "smart" capabilities and lacks WiFi or Ethernet. The usual advice is to simply not connect the internal "smart" capabilities to anything; disable WiFi and don't connect a Ethernet cable. The built-in host and all the nefarious crap it wants to run can't reach anything unless yo…

Post by sjwright » Thu, Sep 19, 2019, 1:54 AM UTC

cyanbane wrote: post #169

mikeryan wrote: post #50

This is a pretty open secret within the industry. Geographic data can be provided via setup (a lot of TV's ask for a zip code on setup) or usually simply via GeoIP lookup. Dig a bit deeper and you get into service provided by Samba TV and or Inscape and you can find that they're sending back frames of video in a lot of cases to track what you're watching. This data is becoming a huge mechanism for subsidizing TV sale…

How do Doctor's that use TVs like this in meeting rooms get around HIPAA? or other places with PII, etc? With so much stuff being thrown to TVs now, a lot of times they are inheriently monitors, and there are very few people who think taking a screenshot of a monitor is not invasive.

Post by eternalny1 » Thu, Sep 19, 2019, 1:55 AM UTC

derefr wrote: post #121

arcticbull wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Flight mode exists because the FAA applies unsafe-until-proven-safe methodology to everything flight related (as they should). If flight mode mattered at all planes would be falling out of the sky on the regular, many people just leave their phones on the whole trip. The only reason I turn my phone off is because it wastes a lot of battery as it tries to manage tower hopping the whole time. Planes are getting blasted…

IIRC there isn't a problem for most of the flight; but right as you're ascending/descending your phone can end up getting a very weak line-of-sight connection to a whole bunch of cell towers at once, which causes a few different problems, but all of which come down to "it makes both your phone, and all the towers, shout really loudly at one-another to try to achieve a circuit." Which, sure, means that there might be…

Post by mokus » Thu, Sep 19, 2019, 1:56 AM UTC

sha666sum wrote: post #148

the_svd_doctor wrote: post #33

I tried to never connect my Smart TV to anything, but I realized one day (when someone's stuff was playing on it without me accepting any request...) it connected an open network in my residence. The only trick that worked to prevent it from connecting was putting the wrong password, and let it loop forever, trying to connect. Ugly.

I've heard about this before. Which manufacturer? Although I'm never buying a smart TV, it's interesting to maintain a mental blacklist of vendors.

Post by mastazi » Thu, Sep 19, 2019, 1:57 AM UTC

Godel_unicode wrote: post #54

the_svd_doctor wrote: post #33

I tried to never connect my Smart TV to anything, but I realized one day (when someone's stuff was playing on it without me accepting any request...) it connected an open network in my residence. The only trick that worked to prevent it from connecting was putting the wrong password, and let it loop forever, trying to connect. Ugly.

I have an extra SSID which has no internet access and logs all of the things for exactly this reason.