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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
by maxton 7y ago
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.
- soared 7y agoTo 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.
- thematt 7y agoBut 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.
- Koshkin 7y agoYou do not need to "trust," just read their respective Privacy Statements and you'll see for yourself.
- freeflight 7y agoThis is not an argument, like not at all, it's just a distraction from the issue: Trampling all over user-rights because somewhere in hundreds of pages of ToS/EULA legal-speak there's a clause hidden supposedly justifying it all. Here's some reality: "You’d Need 76 Work Days to Read All Your Privacy Policies Each Year" [0] and that was back in 2012. Since then ToS, EULA, Privacy Statement and whatnot have only expanded in scope, people use even more services these days and thus accept even more terms. You'd need a dedicated law team doing all the reading and interpreting for you if you want to realistically stay informed about all that consent you've given, without having to give up large parts of your productivity just checking and tracing what weird things you supposedly agreed to [1]. There need to be some well-established limits that won't just rely on users supposedly hand-waving all their privacy away, that way the USG might actually even go back to honoring the Fourth Amendment [2]. [0] http://techland.time.com/2012/03/06/youd-need-76-work-days-to-read-all-your-privacy-policies-each-year/ http://techland.time.com/2012/03/06/youd-need-76-work-days-t... [1] https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-ridiculous-eula-clauses-agreed/ https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-ridiculous-eula-clauses-agr... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third-party_doctrine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third-party_doctrine
- gruez 7y ago>but I probably trust those companies more than I do Samsung. Care to explain why? It looks like both roku and firetv spies on what you watch. https://www.consumerreports.org/privacy/how-to-turn-off-smart-tv-snooping-features/ https://www.consumerreports.org/privacy/how-to-turn-off-smar...
- bitwize 7y agoThe thing is, the smart thing you hook up to it is under your control. It could be a laptop or Raspberry Pi.
- OrgNet 7y agoIs a Windows PC really under your control nowadays? And if you connect your phone to the TV, you don't really even own those, even if you paid $1000 for your "phone". The manufacturers are the true owners unless you root them which is not always easy.
- 83hajfjeijg 7y ago"The content I consume". When the fuck did people start actually talking about themselves like this, it sounds like it's straight out of a dystopian sci-fi novel from the 80s.
- Koshkin 7y agoNetflix is watching you. Youtube, on the other hand, in a private window over a VPN is as far as you can go privacy-wise.
- dividuum 7y agoCan'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.
- coryrc 7y agoSolder the antenna to ground on the wifi module. It's what I'll be doing on my next TV.
- RandomBacon 7y agoOnly if ripping out the wifi module isn't feasible first.
- coryrc 7y agoI could see firmware failing to boot or crashing if an assumed device is missing.
- reilly3000 7y agoOr you could just block the TV’s MAC address on your router.
- allannienhuis 7y agothey'll just connect to your neighbour's router, or their car, or their phone...
- kstrauser 7y agoThat’s a legit concern. If Samsung made a deal with, say, Comcast to connect to the ever-present “xfinitywifi” SSID, then it wouldn’t matter if you’re blocking the sly TV from your own network.
- 7y ago
- flanbiscuit 7y agoI'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.
- SlowRobotAhead 7y agoNot only are the built ins awful. Their lifespan is very short. I had my Samsung for about a year before it would let me know that “XYZ service was ending in one month”. Disconnected that thing from WiFi and have never hooked it back up. Xbox/PS are just far superior smart devices.
- Koshkin 7y agoSoon enough, failure to connect your TV to the internet within, say, one month will void your warranty (and the TV will refuse to work in two months after that).
- Silhouette 7y agoGiven that the above would potentially be illegal on both counts in many places, that seems like hyperbole.