LG Isn't the Only TV Company Spying on You

a month ago by inari to c/enshittification

YouTubessa voit nauttia parhaista videoista ja musiikista, ladata alkuperäistä sisältöä ja jakaa kaiken ystäviesi, perheesi ja koko maailman kanssa.
WolvenSpectre 79 points a month ago

LG was the only one mentioned in the GamersNexus News Story because that is the only brand they could afford to do a deep dive chosen because of the MacAfee popup scandal, and what they covered goes FAR beyond what this RTINGS rerelease of an older story they had done earlier but focused on just ACR. The GamersNexus story went far deeper, but at $80K for doing it for one brand, you are going to have to wait for them to make enough money back before they take on another brand.

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Dnb 6 points a month ago

They also had the ability to hack it to view exactly what it was doing and recording and trying to send and how. Without that access they'd be very limited in reporting.

Someone else did the hacking work fwiw they just used the exploits

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Hakuso 26 points a month ago

I saw someone saying monitors are going this way now.

I've been using one over HDMI ever since "smart" started getting slapped on everything.

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snrkl 16 points a month ago

HDMI cables can carry Ethernet.

Search: Ethernet over HDMI (HEC)

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Axolotl_cpp 10 points a month ago

Oh my fucking god...tell me DP does not

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ScoopMcPoops 7 points a month ago

A quick search says it does not

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tuxiqae 3 points a month ago

HEC(K) no!

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FiniteBanjo 17 points a month ago

Just as a general rule, if a television requires internet connection then its not your friend.

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adarza 5 points a month ago

some not only require the internet, but also an online account to link to.

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altphoto 14 points a month ago

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Bytemeister 3 points a month ago

Huh, I didn't notice any change in my advertisements...

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altphoto 1 point a month ago

So did you get one?

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Nouvellalia 14 points a month ago

The only way to avoid this, other than buying a dumb panel or projector, is to physically burn or disconnect the modem and any microphones.

All the smug people who think they have not connected their TV to the Internet because they "didn't give it access" are pretending like they are dealing with some cornball 1950's company, not a 2020's brand adversarial guv-corp entity. Crack it open and burn it, or Dremel a bit in exactly the right spot.

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MrTolkinghoen 4 points a month ago

Well barring an insecure neighbor wifi. An isolated vlan does the trick.

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rumba 3 points a month ago path: 0 25724932 25726236 25730861, hotness: undefined, score: 3, children: 0
Nouvellalia 2 points a month ago

You really just replied to my comment saying that is insufficient, under an article saying that is insufficient, with 'that is sufficient'?

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MrTolkinghoen 3 points a month ago

Um... What does blocking all internet access not prevent here? By isolated VLAN I mean isolated. I.e. fully blocked from internet access LAN local replies only. 0 WAN access.

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adarza 7 points a month ago

if a device manufacturer is so hell bent on their devices phoning home that they'll connect to an insecure wifi or a wifi network run by a 'partner' provider.. they're gonna be doing that whenever it can't phone home via a configured network connection, too, and not just when there isn't one set up.

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Nouvellalia 5 points a month ago

It doesn't prevent exactly what my comment said it doesn't prevent 'an adversarial entity physically residing within the space'. If I showed up with a pi bristling with antennas, loaded with an unknown, encrypted payload, and plopped it into your living room, would you just hook it into a vlan and be like "there, now I'm safe"?

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Redvenom 9 points a month ago

I guess well have to start mapping TV models with microphones and drown them in silicon or something

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daannii 5 points a month ago

It's usually in the remote.

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ContactClosure 5 points a month ago

Sony put a mic in both. It has a switch to "turn off" the mic on the TV but IIRC the TOS says right up top they're still listening.

Cheap universal learning remotes don't have mics, that helps a little.

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Bytemeister 1 point a month ago

Seems like a terrible place for an active listening device.

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daannii 1 point a month ago

Not really. It's closer to people than the TV is.

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Bytemeister 1 point a month ago

Why would you pick the small battery operated device that gets lost under couch cushions when you can put a mic in the big thing that is plugged in 24/7 and by design has a central and open placement in a room?

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Talaraine 8 points a month ago

I don't think this news surprises anyone. (well it shouldn't at least) Don't connect your tvs to the internet ever peoples!

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frtzngbllr 20 points a month ago

You dont even need to connect it yourself. It can use any open Wifi in range as gamersnexus has shown. It is WAY worse than people think.

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cyberpunk007 4 points a month ago

And partner networks. Like in Canada there is/was "Shaw Go WiFi" where any shaw customer could connect and get internet access. If a tv brand partnered with them, all their shit could connect to those instead.

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HeyThisIsntTheYMCA 1 point a month ago

yaaaaay. they put partner networks all over town so there'd be free wifi everywhere during lockdowns. knew they'd find a way to leverage it.

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Dnb 2 points a month ago

Problem is they are finding ways to still connect like via hdmi connection via your pc or other device connected that does have network access. Or public/open wifi and in large apartments or routers from Comcast and others that share wifi for other subscribers they piggy back off all of these.

Its crazy because them selling the physical hardware isn't super profitable but all your data is! This they need anyway to get it that they can

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AfterlifeAdventures 8 points a month ago
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SchadeMarmelade 12 points a month ago

Maybe change your WiFi password too. Why would they give up the opportunity to spy on you just because you pressed a special button?

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cyberpunk007 4 points a month ago

And hopefully no open WiFi networks or partner SSIDs in the area.

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Bytemeister 1 point a month ago

Or Samsung phones connected to your WiFi, or Samsung phones in general.

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SCmSTR 1 point a month ago

Could you find the wifi antenna on the device you just want to use as a dumb device and just rip it out?

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johntwinkletits 6 points a month ago

Every computer that connects to the Internet is vulnerable.

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Bytemeister 2 points a month ago

Gotta minimize that attack surface.

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fox2263 6 points a month ago

Hasn’t this been known for years? There’s stuff for it built into ad blocking lists and stuff. I use NextDNS on my network, highly recommended.

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Einskjaldi 9 points a month ago

Watch the video, it's much more extensive and aggressive then it sounds.

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SpaceCowboy 0 points a month ago

Yeah back when you could still get a dumb TV, the smart TVs were cheaper. The only way that makes sense is if they're selling data to subsidize the cost of the TV.

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daannii 4 points a month ago

Yeah don't use anything with voice commands. It's just microphones recording everything.

A lot of smart tv remotes have voice command buttons.

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Squizzy 2 points a month ago

Anything capable has one. Apple tv. Nvidia shield. Android box. Roku.

What can do high quality content and not require that a mic be in the room

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some_kind_of_guy 2 points a month ago

A Linux box you build and configure yourself as a media station. Plenty of generic keyboard remotes exist without mics in them.

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Squizzy 2 points a month ago

Pc building is not cheap these days. I wouldnt say its beyond me but it is not an accessible route and difficult to get parity in features. For one CEC HDMI is nigh impossible on 99% of non custom boards.

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some_kind_of_guy 2 points a month ago

It's certainly off the beaten track, and they're definitely outnumbered by all the Android boxes, but they're not hard to find preconfigured either. I'm just kind of biased since I prefer to build stuff myself on principle.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/176976068094

Idk if I'd call a $100 set top box (buy once cry once) "inaccessible". Wouldn't be my first choice, and I also wouldn't be surprised if things like this come bundled with spyware/bloatware (just one of many reasons to prefer self-build IMO).

HDMI CEC seems pretty standard on most modern-ish mini PCs as well. They'll run you 2 or 3x the price of the one in the link, but the market's not short on used - I'm still finding somewhat decent deals despite the hysteria around prices.

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Lumisal 3 points a month ago

What about European Philips TVs (as in sold in the EU?)

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phoenixz 2 points a month ago

Wasn't LG one of the last ones of all monitor brands to go full Gestapo on the users?

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mastod0n 2 points a month ago

I've put way to much effort into this. Got an Android TV and took about three hours to investigate all the preinstalled apps before removing bloatware and spyware via adb before replacing the launcher and other adware. Of course I had to do this three times because I deleted necessary stuff the first two times.

Additionally this little shit got its own cage behind my firewall with connectivity whitelists, DNS redirects, and so on.

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Kolanaki 2 points a month ago

I have a feeling my Samsung TV does it, too.

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