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You can use a Chromecast with either, but one of them can also spy on you without your consent.
by antsar 11y ago
You can use a Chromecast with either, but one of them can also spy on you without your consent.
- kstenerud 11y agoNot if it isn't connected to your network.
- antsar 11y agoValid point. But then you're left with a bunch of crap in the UI that is unnecessary and annoying at best.
- kstenerud 11y agoReally? I'm not. My smart TV defaults to just displaying whatever the incoming signal tells it to. And if some manufacturer decides to clutter things, I just won't buy it. Problem solved.
- rcthompson 11y agoIt's not too much of a stretch for smart TVs to start including cellular connectivity (and advertising it as "zero-setup").
- kstenerud 11y agoAnd who will pay for that cellular connectivity? This is getting well into ad absurdum (a common problem on HN). Smart TVs are perfectly fine for the person who doesn't want a smart TV. Just don't use any of the smart TV features and don't connect it to the network. Problem solved.
- gcr 11y agoNobody thought Amazon would put a cell phone antenna into an eBook reader, but look what happened! :)
- rcthompson 11y agoThat's exactly the example I was thinking of as precedent.
- dragonwriter 11y ago> Not if it isn't connected to your network. Not if it isn't connected to a network. But its hardly as if devices with manufacturer-paid cellular connectivity built in and preconfigured don't exist, so there's no reason that it has to be your network. To the extent that manufacturers are either monetizing networked services or deriving useful data from them, making them independent of end-user networking choices has a pretty clear benefit, and I wouldn't be surprised to see it become a common thing in Smart TVs.
- caskance 11y agoIf you don't trust the TV manufacturer to include spying devices in their product, there is no reason to believe the "dumb" TV you brought from them is any less capable.
- tsuraan 11y agoI don't trust the TV manufacturer to secure their initial release of their "smart" os, and I surely don't expect them to keep it patched. Anybody who breaks into your video-enabled tv can see everything you're doing...
- urda 11y agoAnd how exactly is a dumb TV with no WiFi radio, ethernet port, or any other forms of outgoing communication going to phone home? Please enlighten me.
- gcr 11y agoHow can you prove that your TV doesn't have a WiFi antenna inside? There's plenty of space to hide something like that in.
- urda 11y ago... and what network will it be connecting to? Sure maybe a free hotspot here or there, but many of these TVs will not have access to even those. And hell yeah you can prove it's not in there, either with a quick wireless scan or even a simple physical tear down of the housing which can then be put back together. Show me a dumb TV that has been wired up to spy on people that has been in the wild before.