Crossposted from https://infosec.pub/post/52518361
The TV world has been a pot of controversy thanks to a two-hour-and-15-minute video from Gamers Nexus claiming LG TVs are nefariously spying on everything you do. They can record and store audio even when they seem to be off, track everything you watch, and could even be hacked remotely and turned into covert surveillance […]
Entertainment hardware vendors? Dude, it is just a monitor. I don’t agree with their practices, but I also don’t understand why someone would connect a TV to the internet.
But hey: some people want to play Doom on their fridge. shrug
Can you guarantee that a tv isnt constantly, without consent, searching for an unsecured wireless network to connect to? Or has a secret cellular chip? Or, even if it doesnt right now, that it wont in the future?
This is why we need laws, to protect people who shrug
Dont even need a cell phone. LoRa is a thing and works perfectly fine in both remote areas and not so remote ones.
Oh bro, fuck yes we need the laws. We are certainly on the same team! Absolutely no question.
Shit, man, I will be your brother in arms on this topic!
It’s not just a monitor that’s the point. They just stopped making “just monitors” bigger than like 40". All TVs now available to consumers are spy devices with a big screen.
That you don’t connect to the internet. You can remove this ability. I have, iirc, like a 70". It has no network capability.
So you know, I am a systems and network engineer. Not trying to sound pretentious and in no way am I arguing with you about how most people use their devices, I am just saying my TV isn’t spying on me.
It is just a damn monitor that nags me to connect to the internet.
This “monitor” reports home on what you watch, how long you watch, what other devices are in your home, and integrates an ad service called “Alphonso” (a 100% daugter of LG), using this information to bombard you with ads on your mobile devices and selling this info to data brokers, which in the US also means that it lands in the hands of the government. I don’t know much about your standards regarding privacy, but i’d say what i watch on my tv in my living room is nobody’s fucking business.
Dude, I watched the shit with gamers nexus. My TV has no ability to connect to the internet. 70", just no damn ability because I disabled it.
Just don’t connect your tv to the internet.
No, it doesn’t. But I guess it does for others. I don’t have it connected to any network.
That doesn’t impede these devices as mich as you think. Technologies like LoRa are a thing (although i wasn’t able to find any tv vendor publicly confirming the usage. Funnily enough, i even stumbled upon a project which uses chip harmonics in Esp32 platforms to transmit LoRa Frames without any antenna with varying results), and many just keep saving stuff (text doesn’t need much space) until they are able to connect somewhere. An open WiFi popping up for a few minutes isn’t unreasonable to expect and pretty much unpreventable.
I opened the TV and removed the wifi. Systems guy.
Ok, so you are the one in a 100k people who can confidently “repair” (i count this as a repair) their TV. This doesn’t help anyone else at all and does not eliminate any issues with these devices, unless you published how to do it somewhere in a way a novice can replicate your work, which, if you had to fiddle with the software (some of these things don’t even POST without their WiFi module, which requires software patches, and therefor rooting your TV), is a felony in the US thanks to the DMCA.
Kudos to you if you actually published the way to achieve it, in that case you took a personal risk to right a wrong - this is the stuff that Louis Rossman is looking for btw. Might be a great entry for the consumerrights wiki.
The computer isn’t that complex. You are just destroying the wifi NIC. The hardest part is opening the chassis.
Which is far more than you can expect from a common user. You make the same mistake as everyone working in tech - you vastly overestimate the capability of Joe Shmoe to do such things.
We are talking about people who are overwhelmed by configuring their email-account on Thunderbird or Outlook, who, when they are on a support call and are asked to “close all windows” stand up and shut the windows in their apartment. With the older generation you might even have to define left and right click with them. These people do not open up their TVs, either because they fear losing their warranty or know how deep their technical knowledge goes (as in “not enough to do such things without breaking stuff”).
Also, like i said, be happy that it worked. Many Smart TVs simply refuse to work if a component fails, regardless of reason.
Dude, I am not justifying the corporations actions. I am saying you could fix it.
I am not going against a lawsuit or a boycott. I am saying: it can be fixed.
I don’t see how we are at odds, as I was only bringing up a solution to your concern.
Why must text conversation be so damned tedious? I am a person, just like you.