Your Smart TV May Be Crawling the Web for AI (theverge.com)
- Reference: 0180867474
- News link: https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/26/02/27/1254229/your-smart-tv-may-be-crawling-the-web-for-ai
- Source link: https://www.theverge.com/column/885244/smart-tv-web-crawler-ai
The company has published more than 200 first-party apps to LG's app store alone and still lists Samsung's Tizen OS and LG's webOS as supported platforms, though LG says the SDK is "not officially supported" and its operation on webOS "is not guaranteed." Google, Amazon, and Roku have all since adopted policies restricting or banning background proxy SDKs, and Bright Data no longer supports those platforms.
Several Roku apps still running the SDK disappeared from the store after a journalist with The Verge behind this reporting contacted the company.
[1] https://www.theverge.com/column/885244/smart-tv-web-crawler-ai
Stop connecting the Internet of Trash (Score:2)
The last time I had a TV connected to the Internet was 2010. Today I just use a Linux box, a file manager and a network share with all my torrented content. I can even get HDR.
[1]https://battlepenguin.com/tech... [battlepenguin.com]
I remember that ancient story about someone discovering how Samsungs were transmitting a lot of audio data constantly when they shouldn't. It's literally the Telescreen from 1984. Stop connecting things you don't have admin rights on to the Internet!
[1] https://battlepenguin.com/tech/how-to-play-videos-in-hdr-on-linux-for-a-home-theater/
Re: (Score:3)
Problem is that at some point they are just going to include cellular modem in there and phone home. Getting an IoT package from Vodafone Global and an eSIM costs peanuts. After that happens, you basically need to open the chassis and try to find where the antenna is and disconnect it.
Re: (Score:2)
And it's going to be clamshelled somewhere that'll break the entire TV if you so much as think of going near it. And if you DO manage to disconnect it without breaking the TV the TV will just not receive a confirmation packet when turning on and default to a "Something is very seriously wrong! Take your TV to a repair shop IMMEDIATELY!" screen with no access to being used as, y'know, a TV.
Re: (Score:3)
The purpose of 5G was to support the 20-30 BILLION IoT devices out there. (Forcing you to buy a new phone was just an added benefit.
Are TVs even necessary? (Score:2)
I just do streaming these days: a large monitor connected to my PC seems to be able to do everything I want.
Re: (Score:2)
I use a LG TV as a monitor because it was by far the cheapest way to get this much screen real estate (42.5" in this case.)
I also just do streaming, and I've never connected it to a network, but it remains a TV.
The TVs are partly subsidized by crapware, so it's reasonable to expect them to remain cheaper than monitors.
Re: (Score:3)
Same. Buy a Wyse 7050 off ebay and you have a cheap fanless thin client for running linux. It has no problems streaming through a browser at 4k and does x265 hardware decoding with vlc. You'll only need a displayport to hdmi adapter cable.
Re: (Score:2)
I have two Zen3 PCs hooked up to it, one with 5900X and one with 5850U. In the living room there's just a HiSense Google TV for WAF reasons. It's slightly irritating but also does everything properly including SmartTube, and the ad load is light, plus it never spends much time at the launcher anyway.
Re: Are TVs even necessary? (Score:2)
Spectre offers 55 and 77 inch screens that are dumb panels but have all the bells and whistles of newer panels (hdr, interpolation, etc). The 55in was $200 when I got it, the 77in was stupid dumb, like $450
Re: (Score:2)
Neat! What is the picture quality like? This sounds like a great solution (not sarcasm).
"Your" Smart TV? (Score:2)
Not "mine" because I never had one and never will.
Yeah, I know I can just not connect it to the web. But firstly, I don't want to encourage bad behaviour.
Secondly, given that it's almost impossible to buy a new car that doesn't phone home constantly, how long do you think it will be before smart TVs also have their own cell modems and SIMs and don't need no steenkin' WiFi connection to rat you out and serve you ads?
Re: (Score:1)
If it uses a SIM card, pull the SIM and no more phoning home... use your phone for GPS (if you even really need it).
Pulling the sim might disable some stuff, but the core functionality _should_ still be there.
Re: (Score:2)
Uh yeah, good luck pulling an eSIM.
Google noticed suspicious traffic from your IP (Score:4, Interesting)
Got this message for months and could not figure out what it was. Ended up fully power cycling an LG tv and the suspicious traffic went away. Child launched an app and the traffic came back. LG allows backgrounding apps but they get evicted quite easily due to limited resources. Well the app was a 4MB app that used so little resources it never got evicted. Now I see this post and it just furthers the point, do not connect devices to your network you do not trust. In my case I thought I was safe because it was on its own locked down VLAN, but nope. Now they are all going through proxies
Don't connect TVs to the internet (Score:2)
If you connect your TV to the internet, you are an idiot. Being a part of a bot farm is the least of your worries here. The only connections TVs should get is HDMI and power.
Weird (Score:2)
My stupid tv turns on and off at will because its not designed for anything else including gathering info for 3rd parties.
"Residential Proxies" are the new Crypto Miners (Score:2)
Run by the same sort of people, by the same sort of destroy the world for profit mindset. All this shit needs to be filtered by proper firewalls and antivirus. The fact that Apple and Microsoft have ramped up their anti malware effectiveness means less protected platforms like TV and IOT are being targeted. I've heard that pedophiles use residential proxies to post their vile content online evading traditional blacklists. We now need anti virus for servers and Linux thanks to proxy malware.
Cyber security
Class-action lawsuit time (Score:2)
A class-action lawsuit and possibly criminal charges are the only things that will shut these fuckers down. Using your device as a proxy without your knowledge or consent surely qualifies as computer crime.
technology is a scam (Score:2)
Everyone that manages to slip another microprocessor into your home is looking for the next way to rip you off. To steal your personal data, internet bandwidth, electricity, or money.
Fucking LG (Score:4)
Good thing I've never connected my LG TV to a network.
Sucks that I have this malicious turd squatting in my home just waiting to betray me if anyone ever plugs a network cable into it.
Re: (Score:1)
Of course, that's only if the TV is new enough to get an update that installs that function.
Your phone can't get the update that breaks everything if it isn't new enough, can it?
Re: (Score:2)
> Of course, that's only if the TV is new enough to get an update that installs that function.
It might be old enough now not to, since I bought it 7/2024, but I wouldn't bet on it.
> Your phone can't get the update that breaks everything if it isn't new enough, can it?
Depends, is it an OS update, or a Play services update? If the former no, if the latter yes...