You sit down to relax, put on your favorite show, and settle in for a night of binge-watching. But while you’re watching your TV… your TV is watching you.
Smart TVs take constant snapshots of everything you watch. Sometimes hundreds of snapshots a second.
Welcome to the future of “entertainment.”
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Mine ain’t, I’m using an ancient dumb TV.
even better we dont use tv anymore, just a PC.
I’m not, but I’ve disconnected the Internet from it. It can try all it wants to send the data to the mother ship.
Soon they may come with cellular capacity. Cars and e-bikes already do.
You gotta Faraday cage it!
99% of what we watch is from streaming (Netflix, YouTube, etc). A dumb tv with a Chromecast probably isn’t any better.
Sometimes hundreds of snapshots a second.
That’s a pretty neat FPS for a tv.
Yeah I’m calling bullshit on that quote, I’d like to see proof of any smart TV having beefy enough hardware to record anything at 100fps+, and even then what would be the point? Nothing played back on the screen will even have a frame rate and 60fps… I’m sure this is a lazy article mistake
EDIT: I take it back, I talked it out with Gemini and understand the logic and realistic implementation now, it’s a dedicated part of the SoC design. Still hate the fact that this is a thing, we just need to spread the word about not connecting your actual TV to the internet at all ever.
If they were recording so much couldnt tv makers be held liable for recording another companies property.
The article states that’s what the privacy policy sais samsung can sample every 500ms and LG every 10ms. It doesn’t really mean they are, but it’s definitely possible. A very basic way of detecting content is to take a 1000 pixels evenly spaced out over the screen and store the color values. That gives you something you can match against a database. You don’t need to process a 4K screenshot for this.
The built-in OS on smart TVs almost always sucks. The built-in OS on our LG is slower, has less apps, and has less support for HDR and higher resolutions than our Fire stick.
Just don’t use it and instead plug in a Fire stick, turn off its tracking, then sideload apps like BeeTV and HDO Box.
I know Amazon has a bad rep from a privacy standpoint but the Fire stick is super cheap compared to its competition and lets you turn off the tracking in one page of the settings menu.
The article says the TVs still capture input and do recognition from external sources so using an external device is not helping.
Edit: Unless your tv is not connected to the internet.
The TV can still connect via weave, Amazon sidewalk, or other mesh networks through your neighbors doorbell or thermostat or whatever… Even if you never connect it, it could still report. Have to open it up and destroy the antennas.
No, it’s not. It has not connected to the internet.
Well, so, about that.
A lot of TV’s will form mesh nets with same brand-or even across brands-, until they find one that is connected. I’ve even heard reports of one with a sim card¹.
¹in a 'smoke filled room’² ²okay it was a van. A smoke filled van. And she was on some other stuff too.
Where can I read about these mesh networks?
Think there was an article in… I think wired a couple years back.
My thoughts exactly. My Xbox is spying on me instead.
I think you meant - Me Xbox is spying on my instead.
Yup same, running a shield
Some TVs will sneakily connect to open APs to try and phone home. It is nasty but it does happen. You can only be worry free if you yank out the radio module. Some TVs make it easier than others (My LG TV made it as easy as opening the back of the TV and disconnecting, YMMV)
My TV isn’t a “smart” tv.
On my Sony Bravia running Android you can just disable the Samba app from running same as you’d disable any app in Android.
What 4K TV can I buy that doesn’t do this guys help? Or should I stick to monitors???
Look for Signage Displays. They’re basically TVs with different software.
Never heard of those before. Thanks
Sceptre still makes TVs that are just that, no underlying smart OS
TY!
I got xiaomi, opened it up and disconnected the Bluetooth / wifi card. Connect it to a linux device and now it is a shitter version of a dumb tv. It’s crazy how smart tvs really really suck at being dumb. But it does work once you get used to some annoying quirks.
Tip: connect a cheap air mouse/keyboard to it as a remote
I mean… Just don’t hook the TV up to the internet. Don’t join your WiFi network on the TV.
Kind of a simple solution.
Doesn’t work anymore. They do dark mesh networks.
No it’s not! I had a goddamn Sony tv and it wouldn’t let me change certain settings unless I connected it to the internet! They try to force your hand!
Do you remember the model number? I would like to research this.
What about connecting to a mobile/theter and change password after you adjusted your settings? 🤷♂️
Until the cost of a sim card w/service is less than the revenue they generate from it. Which I fear is scarily close.
You can’t activate the warranty without it. Then once it knows it can go online it will constantly harass you.
“You can’t activate the warranty without it” That’s illegal in most of the world
Calm down, it’s a TV.
You can buy any TV. Just turn off the tracking in the settings and plug in a streaming stick.
I’ve never allowed my TV to have an active route to the internet since I bought it in 2019, it’s exclusively fed over HDMI by gaming consoles and an Apple TV.
The thing is, HDMI 1.4 added HEC, so what’s to prevent media players from serving as an Ethernet switch and providing an internet connection to TVs.
HEC feature enables IP-based applications over HDMI and provides a bidirectional Ethernet communication at 100 Mbit/s
I think the bandwidth is too slow for HD/4K Streams.
I am sure the 100 Mbit/s must also be theoretical maximum, i would be impressed if practical cables supports even half the orignal specs
for streaming, yeah, for tracking its plenty
100Mbit/s is plenty for streaming even 8k
for streaming, yeah, for tracking its plenty
Apple TV is watching you 😁
Does anyone know if there’s a domain blocklist for smart TV telemetry? If so, I could easily put it into my DNS server, like I already do for ads.
I’d like to continue using my streaming apps without resorting to yet another device. I have an HTPC that runs KODI but I think it’d be a pain to replace all of my streaming apps.
A couple I’m aware of:
But like flightyhobler suggested, if you keep an eye on your DNS logs with Pi-hole or managed services like AdGuard DNS and NextDNS you’ll get a better idea of what’s still getting through.
Thank you for posting this! You saved me a search
Turn the TV on and keep an eye on the logs. Many of the common blocklist already block that kind of telemetry.
It’s almost like we should have strong data privacy laws so companies can’t spy on everything we do…
European liberals are trying to weaken gdpr
But think of the corporations! Why isn’t anyone thinking of the poor withering corporations?!
Spy all you want Agent Hisense of the Roku org, I’ve got you in a black box. Your communications have been cut! You’ll never report back to HQ now!
Stupid TVs FTW. If you can’t buy them stupid, give them a WiFi lobotomy.
There has to be a youtube guide to giving WiFi Lobotomy
oh I disabled my “smart” TV’s ability to connect to the internet. its a dumb TV now.
it made the mistake of showing me a banner ad while I was gaming. so I promptly cut its balls off in retaliation.
You can run pihole on Ubuntu.
Point all your network traffic on it and you can still use your TV without your tv using you.
You probably can use your tv without it using you, or probably not.
I, too, use pihole. But it does not prevent your data from leaking 100% and never will. And it’s easily circumvented by using other DNS servers or even by connecting to hardcoded IPs. I dont know specifically about TVs, but some manufacturers do that.
The only way to make sure that TV can never spy is to never connect it to the internet.
YOUR tv is spying on you. MY tv has no smart capability.
How does that help me though?
I think they are inviting you over to their place to watch some (dumb) TV?
Finally, some good TV :)
Disconnect it from the internet…?
Is every comment in the world supposed to cater to you? Are people allowed to add to discussions without consulting you first?
Is it adding to discussions or just posturing? Much like heavy’s comment was about their issues, Lost_My_Mind’s was also about their own situation. Why is the latter acceptable and the former not?
My assumption is not because it promotes discussion, but because it’s something that’s more people emotionally agree with.
Yeah it contributes to the discussion with the simple solution on how not to be spied on by your TV, in an admittedly patronising way.
Yikes, I didn’t know I was being hostile, sorry I hurt your feelings.
You will never be forgiven!
I probably have some bad karma :(
Pal, it’s way beyond bad karma at this point!!!
My TV is not a smart TV, it’s not spying on me.
How old is it ? Which one did you buy
2 1920x1080 LG ones probably over 10 years ago. If smart TVs can’t get online they can’t spy on you.
Well, maybe a Hisense or a cheap soundbar might have a listening device, but they’ll be hard pressed to phone home.
It doesn’t if you don’t connect it to the internet. Fortunately most smart TVs still have HDMI inputs so you can use them as dumb TVs with a PC.
Yep. My TV has not and never will be on the Internet in any way. I picked it for its screen quality, and the fact that it also has “smart” components never even entered into the decision. Because those smart components will literally never do anything.
