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How can someone on HN be unable to "disable" a TV's WiFi network ? Can't you just ban its MAC address from the router or something ?
by bestouff 5y ago
How can someone on HN be unable to "disable" a TV's WiFi network ? Can't you just ban its MAC address from the router or something ?
- jackson1442 5y agoIts _own_ wifi network, likely a Chromecast network like “Vizio $MODEL.c”
- sa1 5y agoMaybe he means it came with a sim card.
- LegitShady 5y agoIt has its own wifi network it broadcasts - an internal wifi router that makes its own network. There's no option to disable it. You can stop it from connecting to your devices, but you can't stop it from broadcasting. You don't know what information it's collecting as your devices constantly query what wifi networks are around them. Even if the tv has no internet connection it still broadcasts a wifi network. I imagine the same way google improved their location services by driving around and literally collecting wifi network information, vizio can see where any TV not connected to the internet physically is if they send someone to drive around and look for their own TVs wifi networks.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- bestouff 5y agoAha I get it. If it's not connected to any network, there's not much harm in it collecting some data. But I see it'll be a problem for the common people.
- rightbyte 5y agoThey probably mesh them to neighbours to spy on people that does not setup wifi.
- reacharavindh 5y agoI still don’t understand. If you never ever connect your creepy TV to the Internet and never give it permission to say connect to your phone, how could it pass on all that collected data? I have always used “Smart TV” this way and have been at peace thinking I don’t have a problem. Am I missing something here? A Vizio TV can create its own WiFi Network all it wants, but it ain’t connecting to my home Internet. Why Do I have to worry?
- codezero 5y agoWiFi host networks are frequently queried by all nearby devices to see what access points are available. Collecting device IDs that are scanning is useful information since for a long time and on most devices, the MAC address was not rotated so it acted to identify people and where they go with mobile devices.
- zzt123 5y agoAmazon Sidewalk, public nets such as Spectrum Wifi, maybe even cellular like cars come with. There are so many ways a smart TV could surreptitiously pull a fast one, and those ways are increasing. Maybe even mesh networks consisting of other TVs. Yours might not be connected to your wifi, but maybe your neighbor’s has permission to theirs.
- reacharavindh 5y agoIf I have to worry about WiFi war driving, I would have to worry about a lot of things at my home. I agree it’s a concern and I choose to deal with it last. Mesh with neighbour’s TV network which has access to their internet is more plausible to me and concerning. Wouldn’t this be illegal and a waiting class action law suit? (Using Neighbor’s internet surreptitiously?) and an easy one to spot at that?
- zzt123 5y agoHow would you spot that one? It would appear to them to be traffic coming from their TV, and you wouldn't see anything on your own net. Unless that's similar to how hotspotting works, where the TTL is different. Also, isn't wifi sharing how many products work these days, such as various find my phone features and Amazon devices?
- citboin 5y agoI’d like to know how it’s implemented and see if it can be physically disabled, removed or purposefully sabotaged.