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Samsung TVs May Upload Screenshots for Automatic Content Recognition

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Re: Samsung TVs May Upload Screenshots for Automatic Content Recognition

#41

Post by Twinklebreeze »

spartas wrote: post #24

I run pi-hole and have a Samsung smart TV. How do I know that the Samsung DNS servers are being blocked? What prevents Samsung from registering new meaningless-sounding DNS names and continually pushing out TV software updates peddling “Security and bugfix” release notes?

This is the exact reason I didn't buy a Samsung smart TV 2 weeks ago. My wife reminded me about ads, so I looked into using Pihole. It wasn't guaranteed to work, so I went with a brand that won't run ads on a TV I paid for. That is a big pet peeve of mine. I hate ads, and refuse to watch them if I pay. I don't pay for the privilege of viewing ads.

Re: Samsung TVs May Upload Screenshots for Automatic Content Recognition

#42

Post by JadeNB »

blackhaz wrote: post #22
egdod wrote: post #4

You can disable this feature, but of course you have to trust the manufacturer that it’s actually disabled. And if the manufacturer were trustworthy, they wouldn’t be doing things like this to begin with.

We need something to firewall the Internets from our too-smart house stuff! Something like an inverse firewall. A waterwall.

Blocking unwanted egress is already accepted as possibly part of the functionality of a firewall (see, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egress_filtering ); there's nothing inherently 'reverse' about it. Indeed, note the symmetry in Wikipedia's definition of a firewall (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firewall_(computing) ):

> In computing, a firewall is a network security system that monitors and controls incoming and outgoing network traffic based on predetermined security rules. A firewall typically establishes a barrier between a trusted internal network and untrusted external network, such as the Internet.

Re: Samsung TVs May Upload Screenshots for Automatic Content Recognition

#43

Post by nsomaru »

spartas wrote: post #24

I run pi-hole and have a Samsung smart TV. How do I know that the Samsung DNS servers are being blocked? What prevents Samsung from registering new meaningless-sounding DNS names and continually pushing out TV software updates peddling “Security and bugfix” release notes?

Just block all traffic from the TV at router level or don’t give it the WiFi password in the first place

Re: Samsung TVs May Upload Screenshots for Automatic Content Recognition

#44

Post by dividuum »

maxton wrote: post #15

Stuff like this is the reason I don’t connect smart TVs to the internet. If I need web content on the TV, I can connect my laptop with HDMI. The TV should be no more than a display and speakers with a tuner.

Can't confirm this myself, but in previous threads about similar topics, people noted that some of those "smart" devices probe every open WiFi they find and use that without your explicit consent. So it's not always possible to disconnect them.

Re: Samsung TVs May Upload Screenshots for Automatic Content Recognition

#47

Post by iotku »

spartas wrote: post #24

I run pi-hole and have a Samsung smart TV. How do I know that the Samsung DNS servers are being blocked? What prevents Samsung from registering new meaningless-sounding DNS names and continually pushing out TV software updates peddling “Security and bugfix” release notes?

>How do I know that the Samsung DNS servers are being blocked?

Would have to know all of the domains that the TV connects through, that they're in one of pihole's blocklists, and the TV actually respects the DNS setting entirely and doesn't have any hard coded IP addresses

>What prevents Samsung from registering new meaningless-sounding DNS names and continually pushing out TV software updates peddling “Security and bugfix” release notes?

Nothing.

The real solution is to not connect any smart devices (especially stuff like TVs) to the internet as most are inherently untrustworthy.

Maybe a whitelisting system on a firewall would be more appropriate than a blacklisting system on something like pihole.

Re: Samsung TVs May Upload Screenshots for Automatic Content Recognition

#48

Post by thematt »

soared wrote: post #38
maxton wrote: post #15

Stuff like this is the reason I don’t connect smart TVs to the internet. If I need web content on the TV, I can connect my laptop with HDMI. The TV should be no more than a display and speakers with a tuner.

To each their own - 100% of the content I consume is Netflix or YouTube. For me a non-smart tv is useless unless I hook up something smart to it.

But you could plug in a Roku or a Fire TV, right? The TV can't proxy through those. It's maybe cringeworthy to say, but I probably trust those companies more than I do Samsung.

Re: Samsung TVs May Upload Screenshots for Automatic Content Recognition

#49

Post by flanbiscuit »

maxton wrote: post #15

Stuff like this is the reason I don’t connect smart TVs to the internet. If I need web content on the TV, I can connect my laptop with HDMI. The TV should be no more than a display and speakers with a tuner.

I've also found smart TV systems, especially Samsung's (this was quite a few years ago now), to be quite terrible. I would constantly have connectivity issues and app crashing issues. Now I have so many external devices (Apple TV, Roku, Chromecast, PS4) with all of the streaming apps that I will never buy a smart TV again.

Re: Samsung TVs May Upload Screenshots for Automatic Content Recognition

#50

Post by giancarlostoro »

welly wrote: post #33
naner wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ads, baby. Everything you do online is for sale.

The Internet needs to be better than being almost entirely propped up by the advertising industry. Surely even they know their day will come. It will, won't it?

Somehow it will. Not sure when. I tire of Amazon giving me ads to things I already bought. Like someone told me they bought something you usually only buy one of like... Random example: a new toilet or something... No I dont need another one the replacement one was fine enough thank you!
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