4 ms·

Ugh are you telling me that these TVs are aggressively trying to find and connect to unsecured Wi-Fi to upload data I don’t want them to have over an unsecure c

Ugh are you telling me that these TVs are aggressively trying to find and connect to unsecured Wi-Fi to upload data I don’t want them to have over an unsecure connection I don’t control? Gross.

Vrondi 6y ago
Time for some HN user to break one of these TVs open and physically remove the antenna or wifi card.
- spmichaels 6y ago
  This is not only possible, but actually very easy. For most TVs I've seen, you can do it in a half hour using only a screwdriver. I wrote a blog post about pulling the WiFi card out of my TCL R625, which should be pretty similar to the process for most other smart TVs: https://spencermichaels.net/posts/2020-03-16-smart-tv-lobotomy/ https://spencermichaels.net/posts/2020-03-16-smart-tv-loboto...
- derwiki 6y ago
  Would it work to set up an ESP32 as a WiFi access point that doesn’t route traffic? I wonder if the Samsung would detect that it’s an unhelpful internet connection and keep looking, or lock onto the bad network the user supplied.
- CyberDildonics 6y ago
  There is nothing difficult about this. Modern TVs can be opened from the back to be repaired and are very modular. You can disconnect wifi antennas if you need to.
akiselev 6y ago
$20 says they already have a deal with Verizon/Spectrum/whatever to use those customer login protected open wifi APs as backhaul when an internet connection is not otherwise available. Considering how much they're leaning on customer PII to subsidize the cost of TVs, I wouldn't be surprised if they start putting 5G radios in them too.
- ddalex 6y ago
  This is the obvious next step, together with not showing the output if there is no net connection
dannyw 6y ago
Yes, Samsung TVs do that: https://www.reddit.com/r/security/comments/bpjky4/worried_about_your_smart_tv_listening_in_simply/ https://www.reddit.com/r/security/comments/bpjky4/worried_ab...

Ugh are you telling me that these TVs are aggressively trying to find and connect to unsecured Wi-Fi to upload data I don’t want them to have over an unsecure connection I don’t control? Gross.

Vrondi 6y ago

Time for some HN user to break one of these TVs open and physically remove the antenna or wifi card.

spmichaels 6y ago
This is not only possible, but actually very easy. For most TVs I've seen, you can do it in a half hour using only a screwdriver. I wrote a blog post about pulling the WiFi card out of my TCL R625, which should be pretty similar to the process for most other smart TVs: https://spencermichaels.net/posts/2020-03-16-smart-tv-lobotomy/ https://spencermichaels.net/posts/2020-03-16-smart-tv-loboto...
derwiki 6y ago
Would it work to set up an ESP32 as a WiFi access point that doesn’t route traffic? I wonder if the Samsung would detect that it’s an unhelpful internet connection and keep looking, or lock onto the bad network the user supplied.
CyberDildonics 6y ago
There is nothing difficult about this. Modern TVs can be opened from the back to be repaired and are very modular. You can disconnect wifi antennas if you need to.

akiselev 6y ago

$20 says they already have a deal with Verizon/Spectrum/whatever to use those customer login protected open wifi APs as backhaul when an internet connection is not otherwise available. Considering how much they're leaning on customer PII to subsidize the cost of TVs, I wouldn't be surprised if they start putting 5G radios in them too.

ddalex 6y ago
This is the obvious next step, together with not showing the output if there is no net connection

dannyw 6y ago

Yes, Samsung TVs do that: https://www.reddit.com/r/security/comments/bpjky4/worried_about_your_smart_tv_listening_in_simply/ https://www.reddit.com/r/security/comments/bpjky4/worried_ab...