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I’m Terrified of My New TV

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Re: I’m Terrified of My New TV

#281

Post by click170 »

nl wrote: post #124
click170 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every time I say this I feel like a shill because I worked for them briefly, but Sophos has a Home version of their UTM firewall (0). It has pros and cons, but overall I think it's pretty good (even after working there). Some other options include Sonicwall and pfsense, and I encourage others to post their suggestions as well. I haven't used SonicWall, though I have used pfsense strictly as a firewall. (0) http://www…

Any hardware solution recommendations - or things that will run on a RPi/router? I don't like the idea of having to keep a desktop/laptop computer on 24/7.

There are some nice form factor cases out there now-a-days, and I would like to explore using those to make a firewall I could offer to friends and family to protect them too, but I'm just using an old desktop right now.

Re: I’m Terrified of My New TV

#282

Post by krapp »

curiouscats wrote: post #130
lurchpop wrote: post #24

Went through this recently at Best Buy. The salesperson said by next year they may no longer carry any "dumb" tvs. Currently, those options are almost gone. I didn't see any dumb tvs over 40" and there were no 4Ks without "smart" features. I plan on just blocking it in my router, but who knows if the TV scans around for open hotspots. If I were a "smart" developer Id store everything locally if offline, then dump to…

The market would produce privacy TVs if people would not buy spy TVs. I would think there is enough of a market to produce such TVs and advertise them that way. But what matters is if someone that is in a position to actually provide such TVs (and do a decent enough job producing and marketing them) to let the market decide. I know the HackerNews community has much more awareness of this issue than most people but it…

>The market would produce privacy TVs if people would not buy spy TVs.

Bear in mind the vast majority of consumers never even glance at a privacy policy, and would only interpret a "privacy TV" as "a TV with fewer features"

A manufacturer only needs to provide an opt-out on these smart tvs for the few people who care about their illusory privacy anyway, and that 'privacy tv' market dies before it's even born.

You can already buy non-smart tvs anyway. I have one. It cost ~$100.00 and was made by some company I've never heard of. The only selling point for such things is their cheapness.

Re: I’m Terrified of My New TV

#283

Post by budu3 »

mmmm wrote: post #196
fulafel wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you not counting Googhle or Apple as third parties?

Do they send sound from your phone to their servers non stop? If so, I'm switching from iPhone straight away.

The Moto X has a "Google Now" functionality where the continuously listens for you commands. Whatever is ships your sound off the Google server is another question.

Re: I’m Terrified of My New TV

#284

Post by res0nat0r »

spacefight wrote: post #197
facepalm wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose the reason for sending all audio to a server could be that the TV is not powerful enough for voice recognition, it needs the cloud for that?

That's hardly an argument to shit on your customers privacy.

Even your iPhone when you ask Siri questions sends your data to be processed in the cloud.

People are buying a TV because they want a TV, not a mini computer. Why would TV manufacturers want to jack up the price of their product with non-essential TV components to have onboard voice recognition?

Re: I’m Terrified of My New TV

#286

Post by Yizahi »

downandout wrote: post #155

I wasn't particularly disturbed by this article until I got to the following passage regarding the "Voice Command" feature: "Please be aware that if your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party." I don't think there is a prison horrible enough to send these people to. There is NO legitimate reason that an always-on…

There is no need for any names in the article, it is Shamesung, obviously. I'm already boycotting all stuff clearly branded as Shamesung for a year or two, not a problem for now. Not that other companies are shining knights of good, but sammy has already fallen below any acceptable thresholds for me.

Re: I’m Terrified of My New TV

#287

Post by PavlovsCat »

diminoten wrote: post #137
rqebmm wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 manufa…

I think the readers of this website vastly underestimate how much the average person understands, and vastly overestimate how much the average person values their privacy. It's starting to get annoying, the folks who want to start a "privacy revolution" even when no one's asking them to.

What really annoys me is that people have a right to not care or see past their own nose. If their opinion was free of negative consquences for me -- and more importantly, the people who already are feeling the boot -- I would consider accepting them having it. But that is far from the case.

What makes people think they have the right to be ignorant and/or opportunistic, when I never asked them to? :P

Re: I’m Terrified of My New TV

#288

Post by mikeash »

snowwrestler wrote: post #277
downandout wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, phones do this too. But the massive difference is that you have to consciously bring up Siri and you know when it's listening and when it's not. The TV appears to be constantly listening for audio commands and is sending whatever it hears upstream for processing. Someone in these comments said that you can turn the TV on through a voice command, which means that it is listening even when it is off and merely plu…

Isn't Siri listening by default now in iOS 8 whenever the phone is plugged in?

I don't think it's on by default. I believe I had to turn it on in the settings after upgrading. In any case, it's not streaming everything it hears. The "Hey Siri" detection is done locally, even though the subsequent voice-to-text is not.

Re: I’m Terrified of My New TV

#289

Post by Nowyouknow »

calgoo wrote: post #210
pmoriarty wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

"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." EMP ?

Less dramatic counter-surveillance technology.

Re: I’m Terrified of My New TV

#290

Post by SlashmanX »

budu3 wrote: post #283
mmmm wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do they send sound from your phone to their servers non stop? If so, I'm switching from iPhone straight away.

The Moto X has a "Google Now" functionality where the continuously listens for you commands. Whatever is ships your sound off the Google server is another question.

That's not how that works. There's something on the chip to just detect keywords, it's not a "always listening" thing
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