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Smart TVs sending sensitive user data to Netflix and Facebook

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Re: Smart TVs sending sensitive user data to Netflix and Facebook

#271

Post by em3rgent0rdr »

harry8 wrote: post #207
harry8 wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Buy a dell monitor [1] or similar. Please link any similar products from competitors here, this company is just the one I know of that comes to mind. [1] eg https://www.dell.com/en-au/work/shop/accessories/apd/210-aqx...

sorry forgot the rest of the post. You build your own set top box to connect to it, which can be pretty good quality while being pretty cheap [1] If you need free to air tv plug a usb dvb dongle into it. Use Kodi, possibly witha mythtv plugin and enjoy. [1] https://www.pine64.org/devices/single-board-computers/rock64...

I've been using mythtv server plus raspberry pi running LibreELEC ("just enough OS for Kodi") for each CRT in my house...making them "smart" but without the surveillance.

Re: Smart TVs sending sensitive user data to Netflix and Facebook

#272

Post by driverdan »

saagarjha wrote: post #168
driverdan wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had the same thing happen. I rooted my Kindle and kept it in flight mode to avoid tracking and updates. After not using it for months I recharged it and when I turned it on it had auto updated to the latest version, killing root. So not only did mine exit flight mode it somehow re-enabled updates and updated itself.

It's possible that it may have cleared its settings after being away from power for that long.

It shouldn't since settings aren't stored in volatile memory.

Re: Smart TVs sending sensitive user data to Netflix and Facebook

#273

Post by nerdponx »

jchrome wrote: post #243
reilly3000 wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that mainly for ad attribution purposes?

Not for attribution. It’s for exposure. If Pepsi buys $1M in ads on NBC, it only knows the DMA and time slot/programs it bought the ads on. It doesn’t know the households it bought the ads on. With ACR data, it will know that you were exposed. From there, they can do a few different things. Audience studies (like they reached 2000 households with a certain income etc). Or they can run attribution studies. A company c…

What's funny about this is that I think this is a legitimate and relatively non-evil use case.

It all comes down to lack of transparency/oversight and the option to exercise control as an individual.

Re: Smart TVs sending sensitive user data to Netflix and Facebook

#274

Post by Silhouette »

jchrome wrote: post #239
Silhouette wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you sure about this? If the TV really is phoning home with whatever is on the screen, including anything personal the owner might happen to be displaying, that's a vast set of lawsuits waiting to happen. The GDPR fines alone could be staggering. I could easily imagine spyware logging whatever TV shows you're streaming and the like, but it's hard to imagine any business in this industry having lawyers dumb enough…

It’s called ACR data and it’s very common. And yes, TVs are phoning home with it. And GDPR only requires that you opt in. So when you sign into the TV for the first time, it gives you an opt in choice and many do it. The States is less regulated but will be soon.

It isn't nearly as easy as you're suggesting to escape the scope of GDPR protections. There could be sensitive personal data or data about children involved. Even if it's just some identifiable individual in the screenshot, you still can't just rely on some sneaky "consent" as a blank cheque - that is merely a possible lawful basis for processing, and all the other provisions of the GDPR still apply.

Edit: Also, on your first point, ACR is generally a variation of fingerprinting technology. It wouldn't be sending entire screenshots of whatever is being displayed even if it's not broadcast content, at least not in any variation I've heard of. It was the idea of uploading the entire image that I was questioning before.

Re: Smart TVs sending sensitive user data to Netflix and Facebook

#275

Post by sjwright »

rodgerd wrote: post #240
sjwright wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don’t let your TV access the internet at all. Smart TV interfaces are almost uniformly worse than set top boxes (one or more of: bad UI, slow CPU, weird quirks, few updates) so you should avoid it anyway. The current Apple TV (which I cite only because of familiarity) has a great UI, every major app, and robust HDMI-CEC support so you might never have to touch your TV’s remote again. And Apple respects your privacy.

Some smart TVs will join open networks if you don't give them one. And I expect that if 5G works as advertised you'll see surveillance capitalism adding 5G connectivity so you no longer have control over connectivity.

A website that catalogued the misbehaviours of the various smart TV operating systems (and the easiest methods of defeat) would be handy here.

E.g. Some TVs will honor wifi off setting. Or alternatively setting the TV to use the Ethernet port.

Or if it needs something on the other end, set up old underclocked Raspberry Pi as a basic router/DHCP server that connects to nothing; power it with TV's USB port.

If you've got a fancy router, connect it to your network with a fixed IP and firewall deny all packets from/to its IP.

If you've got a fancy AP, set up an alternative SSID that connects to an unused VLAN or otherwise routes to nowhere.

Re: Smart TVs sending sensitive user data to Netflix and Facebook

#276

Post by sjwright »

rangibaby wrote: post #267
rodgerd wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some smart TVs will join open networks if you don't give them one. And I expect that if 5G works as advertised you'll see surveillance capitalism adding 5G connectivity so you no longer have control over connectivity.

[flagged]

Unscrew the back of your TV, the internal Wi-Fi antennas may well be be easily identified and disconnected.

e.g.

https://emfaction.userecho.com/communities/1/topics/124-disa...

Re: Smart TVs sending sensitive user data to Netflix and Facebook

#277

Post by throwaway122378 »

bryan_w wrote: post #191
throwaway122378 wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can make DuckDuckGo your default search engine on all Apple devices. Apple is definitely a for profit business and they charge for their products instead of subsidizing with data aggregation or theft.

Still doesn't change the fact that if Apple was principled on privacy, they would refuse google's billions in spy money and wouldn't, by default, send their customers to Google search engine to be harvested

I hear ya but if DDG doubled googles offer Apple would change the default. They are for profit and don’t hide it. Google and Facebook on the other hand hide or at least try to hide their illegal business models

Re: Smart TVs sending sensitive user data to Netflix and Facebook

#278

Post by jeffk_teh_haxor »

What if the communication is benign? What if the TV is simply refreshing a list of recommendations? Everybody - including this forum - is so primed to read nefarious motives into basically anything a computer can do now. Soon we're not going to be able to write a single "hello world" app w/o having to fill out a ream of EU paperwork and get licensed and bonded in advance.

Re: Smart TVs sending sensitive user data to Netflix and Facebook

#279

Post by xxs »

dontbenebby wrote: post #246
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…

>This data is becoming a huge mechanism for subsidizing TV sales and the interactivity is being looked at as a huge opportunity to recoup some of the ad spend being lost via streaming and fewer 30 second spots So what are the options for a consumer willing to pay for privacy? Will console manufacturers be more respectful for example? (I've considered a console to serve as a bluray player / host OS for streaming apps…

pihole (while list DNS, etc.) or not connecting the TV to internet, block it by MAC entirely on the router.

>Or are we stuck using dumb tvs and connecting out laptops to them via HDMI? (And thus no 4K iirc)

HDMI 2.0 (2013) supports 4k/60Hz.

HDMI 2.1 is significantly more ambitious with 8/10k resolution and variable refresh rate.

Re: Smart TVs sending sensitive user data to Netflix and Facebook

#280

Post by dreamcompiler »

pacala wrote: post #119
throw03172019 wrote: post #36

I disabled WiFi on my Samsung TV after they were injecting ads into the home screen. Spend $800 to get ads served in their shitty/slow UI.

Five years from now, 5G will be widely deployed, with a connection density of 1M/sqkm, 1000 times larger than 4G. The TV will connect directly to the 5G network without asking for permission. For your convenience [TM].

At which point I hope there will be websites describing how to take the TV apart and disable the 5G modem.

Or somebody will invent a small short-range backhaul-less 5G spoof microcell you can put next to the TV that will confuse the TV's modem into connecting to nothing.

Or just wrap the TV in a Faraday cage. But keeping the screen visible might make that tricky.

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