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Our 25yo analog Sony CRT television just gave up the ghost. I looked online for a new television, but all of them come with 'voice control' and other 'smart' fe

Our 25yo analog Sony CRT television just gave up the ghost. I looked online for a new television, but all of them come with 'voice control' and other 'smart' features. Do I really want to engage in yet another infosec fight trying to keep what should be a simple dumb appliance from reporting on what I do in my own home?

hakfoo 7y ago
The very cheapest, "who the hell is this" brands often have non-smart models in larger sizes. I wonder if you could DIY a set-- buy the panel and a controller dumb controller board and bolt it together yourself? I know someone did that back when the "import an off-brand 27" LCD monitor for 1/3 the price of the Apple equivalent" was a trend.
skunkworker 7y ago
Simple. Just don’t connect your TV to the web. I do this and have a separate Apple TV that I use, because the tv apps quickly become obsolete
- leeoniya 7y ago
  yep, same. got a good quality Sony Bravia 4K that stays offline except occasionally for firware updates and on an isolated vlan. built an HTPC that's connected via HDMI that i can use for youtube, netflix, plex/kodi, NAS, etc. basically a dumb display.
  - ttty 7y ago
    Maybe it stores all your data on disk. When you update the firmware, it will send all the data saved before
    - leeoniya 7y ago
      it's possible, sure. most of the tracking features on smart tvs relate to tge use of smart features/apps. the parts that do screen fingerprinting do it in real-time, so hopefully does not store many months of 1-sec intervals of fingerprints. i should actually intercept the traffic to double check.
    - Nux 7y ago
      This is quite likely.
- Grangar 7y ago
  I hope you have a signal jammer that blocks all other wifi networks, because it's been proven that smart TV's also connect to open wifi.
newguy1234 7y ago
I have a feeling that there is going to be a big community of DIY hackers that are going to figure out ways to just disable those features. For example, I am sure the TV could be opened up and the camera could just be disconnected. Most of those little cameras are simply connected via ribbon cable anyways.
Tempest1981 7y ago
Some of them require you to opt in to use voice control, fwiw. Ideally they don't capture audio if you opt out, but who knows.

hakfoo 7y ago

The very cheapest, "who the hell is this" brands often have non-smart models in larger sizes. I wonder if you could DIY a set-- buy the panel and a controller dumb controller board and bolt it together yourself? I know someone did that back when the "import an off-brand 27" LCD monitor for 1/3 the price of the Apple equivalent" was a trend.

skunkworker 7y ago

Simple. Just don’t connect your TV to the web. I do this and have a separate Apple TV that I use, because the tv apps quickly become obsolete

leeoniya 7y ago
yep, same. got a good quality Sony Bravia 4K that stays offline except occasionally for firware updates and on an isolated vlan. built an HTPC that's connected via HDMI that i can use for youtube, netflix, plex/kodi, NAS, etc. basically a dumb display.
- ttty 7y ago
  Maybe it stores all your data on disk. When you update the firmware, it will send all the data saved before
  - leeoniya 7y ago
    it's possible, sure. most of the tracking features on smart tvs relate to tge use of smart features/apps. the parts that do screen fingerprinting do it in real-time, so hopefully does not store many months of 1-sec intervals of fingerprints. i should actually intercept the traffic to double check.
  - Nux 7y ago
    This is quite likely.
Grangar 7y ago
I hope you have a signal jammer that blocks all other wifi networks, because it's been proven that smart TV's also connect to open wifi.

newguy1234 7y ago

I have a feeling that there is going to be a big community of DIY hackers that are going to figure out ways to just disable those features. For example, I am sure the TV could be opened up and the camera could just be disconnected. Most of those little cameras are simply connected via ribbon cable anyways.

Tempest1981 7y ago

Some of them require you to opt in to use voice control, fwiw. Ideally they don't capture audio if you opt out, but who knows.