This is the plain answer right here. The article promotes wasting way too much effort clicking around in the manufacturer's dark-patterned paradigm that merely

This is the plain answer right here. The article promotes wasting way too much effort clicking around in the manufacturer's dark-patterned paradigm that merely provides some simulation of user empowerment. The simple answer is that no network backhaul means no surveillance. And if you want bonus points, open it up and pull the wifi card. I'd caveat by not completely ruling out updating over the network though. Because you should only really be doing updates as part of your initial purchase/setup while it's still in the product return period, otherwise you can fall victim to post-sale revocation of functionality regardless of how an update is delivered. Also perhaps not as applicable to TVs, but the initial purchase/return period is when you should be doing any advanced setup like pulling the wifi card or installing libre software distribution on a device. Otherwise you'll likely never actually get around to it later on once the device is "working". Ideally, think about how you're going to set up any given device/model in a freedom-preserving manner before you even buy it.