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Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

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Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#791

Post by aronpye »

chrisjc wrote: post #777
aronpye wrote: post #212

I built my own router with a raspberry pi. I installed pi-hole and use that as a dns resolver. I then use an iptables rule to NAT / forward all dns traffic on port 53 to the pi-hole resolver, similar to how ISPs often intercept dns requests. This prevents IOT devices from bypassing the dns server configured via my DHCP. Letting pi-hole block the requests helps prevent errors from dns request timeouts. An additional b…

Is there anything to stop devices from establishing a VPN connection? I imagine that would be the next logical step that device manufactures will go to to combat consumers setting up pi-holes.

No, something that uses an encrypted tunnelling protocol like IPsec would hide its communications. You wouldn’t be able to spoof the server either due to IPsec’s authentication capabilities.

You could stop the device from initiating a tunnel by blocking the appropriate ports and protocols.

Although if I found out a device was going to these lengths and wasn’t open source, I don’t think I’d want it on my network.

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#792

Post by asdff »

datenhorst wrote: post #599
marcosdumay wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, yes, brand awareness is a real thing. For example, a lot of people will avoid Samsung TVs right now.

Or avoid Smart TVs altogether if you're a cord cutter anyway, and opt for what I believe is called a "public display".

Even those try to connect to a network now. Look at the spec sheets: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1573436-REG/samsung_l...

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#793

Post by deanclatworthy »

leokennis wrote: post #782
program wrote: post #421

You can disable ads but the checkbox is deeply buried in the support menu page. Also the preference is reset every time Samsung update the T&C (more or less once a month). I added 6 Samsung domains to my Pi-Hole blacklist [1], domains that are queried dozens of times a day. [1] https://gist.github.com/zaerl/e3c24a9c21e5c15138e92a43ccd534...

For lazier or less technically inclined people: https://NextDNS.io . One click and no more ads: https://kennis.cc/public_uploads/d22bcaaf.jpeg

Where exactly can you choose this through the desktop ui?

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#794

Post by ghostpepper »

ascagnel_ wrote: post #487
oarsinsync wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The bigger problem is that at some point there will not be any "idiot box" models at all. The TVs will refuse to work if they aren't seeing the Internet. Then we'll be truly fucked. We're closer to that than you think. My Philips Ambilight television (purchased this year) throws a popup every few weeks already complaining that I've not completed setup and connected it to the internet. As sold as I am on Ambilight (…

I’ve said it in the past: commercial displays are the new “dumb” displays. Unfortunately, they’re not full TVs — no speakers, no tuner — so they’re not as “idiot” friendly as a regular TV while being more expensive.

Got any recommendations for a good 4K panel in the 40" - 60" range that won't break the bank? I have my own speakers and I can buy an external tuner if I need one

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#795

Post by asdff »

glitcher wrote: post #748
canucker2016 wrote: post #580

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some Samsung TVs already try and connect to open WiFi networks if you don't connect them yourself. see https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/bpr6xs/if_you_choo... My next idea - Faraday cages for smart TVs

Or Faraday cages for entire rooms in my house!

Faraday cages around the property line. In LA some people already live in houses hidden behind 25 foot tall hedges. They need only a tin foil roof.

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#796

Post by aronpye »

ArchOversight wrote: post #767
aronpye wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you can but if it cant resolve it will fallback to googles resolver automatically. At least this is what happened on my model. I built my own router with a raspberry pi. I installed pi-hole and use that as a dns resolver. I then use an iptables rule to NAT / forward all dns traffic on port 53 to the pi-hole resolver, similar to how ISPs often intercept dns requests. This prevents IOT devices from bypassing the dns…

DNS over HTTP has screwed this up. I'm just waiting for smart devices to start doing that instead, forcing me to set up full SSL filtering until they start doing encrypted SNI :/

True, although then I’d lose trust in the devices and wouldn’t want to use them by that point anyway.

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#797

Post by ghostpepper »

RandomBacon wrote: post #423
m463 wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that will just create a market opportunity. There was a company that made just a good tv, no smarts, but I can't find it right offhand. It think it was a european company

Sceptre TVs. They sell dumb 4K TVs.

How is the picture quality compared to the top Samsung/Sony 4K panels used in smart tvs?

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#798

Post by Sohcahtoa82 »

dooglius wrote: post #400
chongli wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was this the essay you were referring to [1]? I think you’re bang on with this comparison. My dad and I have long complained how (for example) grocery stores seem to constantly cancel our favourite products. We know it’s not the manufacturer because the product is still on their website. My dad and I even have a term for the people in the head office who make the decision to phase out our favourite products: spreadsh…

Sounds like the two of you may be "harbinger customers", the interesting economic phenomenon of people who tend to like products that flop.

Damn, am I a harbinger customer? I loved my Motorola Droid, Droid 4, and Droid Turbo, none of which saw nearly the success of the iPhones and Samsung Galaxies.

I just thought it was crappy that Motorola was actually providing phones with the features people were asking for (In the Droid days, people wanted physical keyboards, and the Droid Turbo offered insane battery life and a damn near bullet-proof screen), but they seemed to be commercial failures.

FWIW, I use a Pixel 3 now, which seems to be doing okay, but still not near the success of iPhone and Galaxy.

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#799

Post by asdff »

cced wrote: post #300
huhtenberg wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If I paid 1000s of dollars for an "idiot box" that's supposed to reproduce faithfully the signal that I pass it Just don't connect it to the Internet. The bigger problem is that at some point there will not be any "idiot box" models at all. The TVs will refuse to work if they aren't seeing the Internet. Then we'll be truly fucked.

This is not the solution. Adding a PiHole to your network is not the solution. Disabling features in other places of your network is not the solution. What if Samsung decides that it will try to connect to open networks for updates or what not? What then? Ask your neighbour to install PiHole on his network? No. This is an example of a game of cat and mouse that shouldn't exist - you pay money for a TV and that's not…

In practice, the samsung TV won't connect to your neighbors wifi if its already connected to yours. So you can firewall away and the TV will be none the wiser. For now, at least.

Re: Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads

#800

Post by Sohcahtoa82 »

com2kid wrote: post #554
qcq36 wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s something rather extraordinary about this community, in particular, throwing a fit about advertising in products. This discussion has gone from “fuck that guy” — overlooking that almost every employer represented here has one and the larger employers have entire divisions of them — to “capitalism is bad” in three messages. That’s impressive. It’s almost as if the root cause of why these business models are ho…

Samsung positions themselves as a high end brand. These ads are appearing on higher end tv models. If their $300 bargain basement basement tv was ads supported to keep the price low, eeh, maybe. But that isn't the case here. Consumer Gmail is free. If Office 365 premium ever starts showing ads, people will also become upset.

> If Office 365 premium ever starts showing ads, people will also become upset.

And Microsoft will do nothing about it because people will use it anyways.

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