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LG TV shown scanning LAN for third-party phones and other devices
(arstechnica.com)
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this post was submitted on 09 Sep 2026
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privacy
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smart devices belong in an isolated network zone on your network.
I realize (and so does LG and many others) that smart devices offer a back door through perimeter security defenses. They understand that most people cannot defend themselves against (or even understand) this and also effectively use the product at the same time.
Effectively, many smart devices are trojan horses. Limit how many you use, understand whether or not they actually need persistent internet access, and segment your network if you have the ability.
Except they're scanning for unsecure ones and piggybacking through HDMI cables.
The only secure way is to not have them at all
In some cases, they might be looking for unsecure devices.. but really I think the main use case for LG is to identify the devices. They are more interested in knowing what and whose products you have. And maybe also to what degree they identify individual people by the unique characteristics.
Your phone, for example, would communicate its response to this scan using a unique physical ID (MAC address), and that ID would stay consistent regardless of what wifi network you were on. So you see how that's useful to fucking Palantir or whoever wants it.
Where have you been? The default for phones now is create a random MAC address every time it connects to a WiFi network. So no it well not allow tracking over networks or even on the same network. This is the default on iOS and Android, and people do not change from the default.
Well thanks for tip, i guess? I do see the setting in iOS.
How does it piggy back over HDMI cables? Yes there was a spec for ethernet over HDMI but nothing used it. The hardware has to be there for it to work.