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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

#371

Post by CraneWorm »

exolymph wrote: post #317
ghostpepper wrote: post #312

I would love to update my 10 year old 1080p Philips non-smart TV to a 55" or so 4K HDR screen but I don't want any of the smart features. Does anyone know of any manufacturers selling high end "dumb" TVs? For now I'm comfortable using my appleTV but I like the fact that I can disconnect it at any time. I want a TV that will simply display whatever signal it receives without any connectivity required.

What you're looking for is a monitor.

Except for a monitor you are likely to pay thrice as much as for a TV of comparable screen size.

It doesn't end there; while I was looking for a monitor I found several models running Android! One can not be too careful these days.

That said, it is still possible to get a Dumb TV, say up to 55'. Larger devices are almost exclusively ~~spies~~ smart.

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

#372

Post by distances »

eternalny1 wrote: post #225
derefr wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Do you realize how many people leave their cellular devices on during flight? 2.7 million people fly on airplanes every day. Even if you think the vast majority of them turn their phones off, it's still a huge number of people who don't.

> 2.7 million people fly on airplanes every day.

That sounded way too low so I checked -- I think your number is US domestic flights, worldwide we have about 12.6 million daily passengers.

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

#373

Post by CraneWorm »

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.

Sencor makes some. https://www.sencor.com/ultra-hd-televisions?smarttv=false

I've found other brands. It's hard to find a dummy, but doable.

I couldn't find anything in stock that was larger than 55'.

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

#374

Post by distances »

ComodoHacker wrote: post #338
jsjw7sbw wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even better. Can we go any dumber?

No channel controls? TV automatically switches to a whoever has made a better deal with the manufacturer?

That sounds like a traditional "smart" feature to me. Dumb could be a manual selection of HDMI input without scanning for the signal.

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

#375

Post by CraneWorm »

chewyland wrote: post #16
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.

PiHole.

That is still a wrong solution to the problem.

The thing is, in my opinion that you shouldn't have to set-up PiHole in the first place.

If we do that and don't vote with the feet and wallets we won't see a single DumbTv in a few years. It is still possible to find a non-Smart device. Don't pay for someone's ad-space!

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

#376

Post by CraneWorm »

Simon_says wrote: post #5
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.

You can buy it, but it's called a "monitor". Projectors also work.

There is an increasing number of monitors running Android.

Projectors are safe for now, but I think it's because they are seen as a niche/hipster thing.

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

#377

Post by zeta0134 »

chillydawg wrote: post #351
cm2187 wrote: post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As long as you don’t connect it to the internet, can’t do much harm. Though HDMI has evolved into a supper chatty protocol with information going both ways. HDMI doesn’t allow a TV to access the internet connection of a laptop or ps4 connected to it, right?

(UK) my new Virgin media cable box came with a hdmi cable that said "hdmi with ethernet" on the side. It's plugged into my TV (which has WiFi disabled) and as far as I can tell it's not leaking a gateway or anything but it could well be. Regardless: security nightmare.

The HDMI with ethernet thing is probably a lot more benign than you would think. Ethernet is simply one of the many protocols that HDMI can use for its communication across that wire, in addition to the video feed; as a result that ends up on the package. Very few television sets even support the feature in any capacity; it's generally more practical to just use wifi.

Besides that, a cable company's set top box doesn't need to use any fancy HDMI tricks to snoop on what you're watching at any given moment: the cable box does that for them. This doesn't give them any information other than the channel you have selected at any given moment (and whether the TV's actually on), but that's enough for ad tracking and viewership ratings, and that's usually all the network cares about.

(Note that I still find that whole feedback loop a bit uncomfortable; I won't ever have a cable subscription myself. But I have a hard time believing those cheap set top boxes are sophisticated enough to extract frame data from arbitrarily televisions over HEC; the compatibility issues alone would be a nightmare to code around.)

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

#380

Post by accounn »

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…

Scam & spy business in plain sight.

We live in a pretend society where fakeness is worshipped We live in a pretend society that's backstabbing individuals on global scale. We live in AdLandia, AllGoodLandia.

Welcome to AdLandia, AllGoodLandia!

Where:

you have no voice, you have no choice, you have no space, you have no escape, you have no respect.

Where history gets deleted, and future censored.

Where is the support when you need it?

It doesn't exist. Because it is unnecessary as everything is already "fixed."

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