4 ms·

Yet another example of the customer coming last. Are TV's that force ads on customers heavily discounted? If not, the manufacturers are earning extra revenue wh

Yet another example of the customer coming last. Are TV's that force ads on customers heavily discounted? If not, the manufacturers are earning extra revenue while the customer loses their privacy and gets nothing in return other than annoyance. It's a good illustration of why privacy is so complicated: most people wouldn't think that in buying a TV they're compromising their privacy because they don't know about ACR and such. The manufacturers, of course, know all about it, but it's not in their interest to share the information - specifically, to do so in a way that empowers the consumer to make an educated decision at purchase time. (Or am I wrong and they do in fact explain everything "on the box"? I haven't had to buy a TV in a long time.)

traveler01 6y ago
This is so stupid. When I bought my TV it didn't behave like this, but now for some stupid reason I need to get ads on it? I mean, normal TV it's 90% ads 10% content, do we need to watch even more ads? Anyone has any idea on how adding a filter like AdBlocker to your router? Never thought about this but it's getting useful af.
- UncleSlacky 6y ago
  Pi-Hole would probably do the trick: https://pi-hole.net/ https://pi-hole.net/
  - rvwaveren 6y ago
    Yes, that works! I have a Samsung Frame + PiHole. Incredible amount of network requests are blocked now.
    - mercora 6y ago
      i tried blocking DNS or whitelisting and you probably see that large amount of blocked requests because it tries like every second if you refuse the response.
  - kxrm 6y ago
    Just an fyi, it's good to setup firewall redirection from suspicious devices as well. For my Roku I have setup a redirection for all DNS port queries to my pihole as some app developers are getting wise to this and using their own DNS. It won't be long until they encrypt this traffic and lock us out completely though.
- vmnjhhh 6y ago
  https://pi-hole.net/ https://pi-hole.net/ ?
- iso1631 6y ago
  The future is https://imgur.com/H9dd3B1 https://imgur.com/H9dd3B1
- garblegarble 6y ago
  I do this and it's been somewhat useful - you need to disable blackhole rules periodically to get app updates though (and the TV will send a storm of DNS queries your way if you dare to block queries) Frustratingly, recently the latest Plex app stopped working with the block rules I had in place, so I've had to allow through a lot more of the TV's traffic to samsung domains than I'd like. My primary annoyance is Samsung's monitoring of what I do on my TV, and secondarily their IPTV service, which it seems to default to on startup (I only use apps and PC/game console sources, the TV isn't plugged into or tuned for any channels). Realistically I need to switch to a Shield TV and hope that nVidia's privacy policies are better... and never buy a samsung tv ever again.
  - my123 6y ago
    The Shield TV runs Android TV, so you are just moving your point of trust to Google instead...
t0mas88 6y ago
Given the privacy angle, I expect they won't do ACR in Europe. Because that would require asking permission and the courts have ruled that "free and explicit consent" means the user must be able to say no. Otherwise it doesn't count as consent and the massive GDPR fines come into play. For all the bad press it got, I'm happy to have GDPR because it very firmly puts the consumers in control of their data. Enforcement isn't fully there yet, but with Oracle getting sued and pulling the plug on the European side of their Blukai data sales business things are moving in the right direction.
- tyfon 6y ago
  My new LG CX tv has an option in the settings for this (in Norway) so I can just turn it of. My old Sony Bravia with android tv didn't even honour my DHCP DNS settings so I made the firewall reroute all the requests to my internal dns for "pi-holeing". GDPR is a massive win for consumers, enforcement will come it just takes time :)
JohnBooty 6y ago
Yet another example of the customer coming last. Unfortunately, it's worse than that. It's more like a case of the consumer coming first. The vast majority of consumers don't care about this. They're trying to get the biggest screen for the least money. And TV manufacturers are giving it to them. However, to remain price competitive with the other TVs on the shelf in WalMart, they need to rely on ad revenue. So, we get TVs with ads. This isn't a dystopian thing forced upon us by evil TV manufacturers. This is a dystopian thing we've asked for.
- obscura 6y ago
  > The vast majority of consumers don't care about this. You may be right, but how exactly is someone meant to make an informed decision when they don't know what their TV is doing? It's unreasonable to expect the average person on the street to be an expert on the subject and to have fully researched everything before walking into a store, so if the TV's packaging doesn't say anything about the subject, how do they learn? > However, to remain price competitive with the other TVs on the shelf in WalMart, they need to rely on ad revenue. Which other TVs are you referring to? And is this really the case or are you speculating? Surely a company the size of Samsung can be competitive without having to resort to this sort of activity?
  - JohnBooty 6y ago
    It's unreasonable to expect the average person on the street to be an expert on the subject and to have fully researched everything before walking into a store, so if the TV's packaging doesn't say anything about the subject, how do they learn? I 100% agree with you that the current solution stinks and is unfair. The solution depends on who you ask. Some would say that it's up to the consumer to be educated. Like you, I don't think this is realistic. It's not realistic to expect every consumer to become an expert in the nuances of every single thing they might buy. Others would say that if it's really important to customers, we'll vote with our dollars and demand alternatives to the current situation. Some would say that the government should ban the practice or at least require some sort of very clear disclosure. What would you like to see?
- 6y ago

traveler01 6y ago

This is so stupid. When I bought my TV it didn't behave like this, but now for some stupid reason I need to get ads on it? I mean, normal TV it's 90% ads 10% content, do we need to watch even more ads? Anyone has any idea on how adding a filter like AdBlocker to your router? Never thought about this but it's getting useful af.

UncleSlacky 6y ago
Pi-Hole would probably do the trick: https://pi-hole.net/ https://pi-hole.net/
- rvwaveren 6y ago
  Yes, that works! I have a Samsung Frame + PiHole. Incredible amount of network requests are blocked now.
  - mercora 6y ago
    i tried blocking DNS or whitelisting and you probably see that large amount of blocked requests because it tries like every second if you refuse the response.
- kxrm 6y ago
  Just an fyi, it's good to setup firewall redirection from suspicious devices as well. For my Roku I have setup a redirection for all DNS port queries to my pihole as some app developers are getting wise to this and using their own DNS. It won't be long until they encrypt this traffic and lock us out completely though.
vmnjhhh 6y ago
https://pi-hole.net/ https://pi-hole.net/ ?
iso1631 6y ago
The future is https://imgur.com/H9dd3B1 https://imgur.com/H9dd3B1
garblegarble 6y ago
I do this and it's been somewhat useful - you need to disable blackhole rules periodically to get app updates though (and the TV will send a storm of DNS queries your way if you dare to block queries) Frustratingly, recently the latest Plex app stopped working with the block rules I had in place, so I've had to allow through a lot more of the TV's traffic to samsung domains than I'd like. My primary annoyance is Samsung's monitoring of what I do on my TV, and secondarily their IPTV service, which it seems to default to on startup (I only use apps and PC/game console sources, the TV isn't plugged into or tuned for any channels). Realistically I need to switch to a Shield TV and hope that nVidia's privacy policies are better... and never buy a samsung tv ever again.
- my123 6y ago
  The Shield TV runs Android TV, so you are just moving your point of trust to Google instead...

t0mas88 6y ago

Given the privacy angle, I expect they won't do ACR in Europe. Because that would require asking permission and the courts have ruled that "free and explicit consent" means the user must be able to say no. Otherwise it doesn't count as consent and the massive GDPR fines come into play. For all the bad press it got, I'm happy to have GDPR because it very firmly puts the consumers in control of their data. Enforcement isn't fully there yet, but with Oracle getting sued and pulling the plug on the European side of their Blukai data sales business things are moving in the right direction.

tyfon 6y ago
My new LG CX tv has an option in the settings for this (in Norway) so I can just turn it of. My old Sony Bravia with android tv didn't even honour my DHCP DNS settings so I made the firewall reroute all the requests to my internal dns for "pi-holeing". GDPR is a massive win for consumers, enforcement will come it just takes time :)

JohnBooty 6y ago

Yet another example of the customer coming last. Unfortunately, it's worse than that. It's more like a case of the consumer coming first. The vast majority of consumers don't care about this. They're trying to get the biggest screen for the least money. And TV manufacturers are giving it to them. However, to remain price competitive with the other TVs on the shelf in WalMart, they need to rely on ad revenue. So, we get TVs with ads. This isn't a dystopian thing forced upon us by evil TV manufacturers. This is a dystopian thing we've asked for.

obscura 6y ago
> The vast majority of consumers don't care about this. You may be right, but how exactly is someone meant to make an informed decision when they don't know what their TV is doing? It's unreasonable to expect the average person on the street to be an expert on the subject and to have fully researched everything before walking into a store, so if the TV's packaging doesn't say anything about the subject, how do they learn? > However, to remain price competitive with the other TVs on the shelf in WalMart, they need to rely on ad revenue. Which other TVs are you referring to? And is this really the case or are you speculating? Surely a company the size of Samsung can be competitive without having to resort to this sort of activity?
- JohnBooty 6y ago
  It's unreasonable to expect the average person on the street to be an expert on the subject and to have fully researched everything before walking into a store, so if the TV's packaging doesn't say anything about the subject, how do they learn? I 100% agree with you that the current solution stinks and is unfair. The solution depends on who you ask. Some would say that it's up to the consumer to be educated. Like you, I don't think this is realistic. It's not realistic to expect every consumer to become an expert in the nuances of every single thing they might buy. Others would say that if it's really important to customers, we'll vote with our dollars and demand alternatives to the current situation. Some would say that the government should ban the practice or at least require some sort of very clear disclosure. What would you like to see?
6y ago