Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)
It's going to get to the point where we'll need 3rd party open source OSes for every device in our homes.
"Your toaster is spying on you, use ToastOS instead."
Reminds me of the Cory Doctorow story Unauthorized Bread. It's as depressing as it is relevant even though it tries to shoot for hope.
I still believe this leaves a good market for a brand to just make privacy focused TVs.
If I’m buying a $1000 TV, I would pay $1100 if it means it’s just a screen and not smart.
The only obstacle is enough people wanting this.
Considers how much the average person cares
Maybe it’s a fantasy.
The problem is you can just buy the $1000 TV you actually want and a $50 Android TV box to get the best of both worlds.
Now if only there was better competition on that Steaming box front.
Agreed. I tried looking for a big monitor instead of a TV last time we were in the market for one and there were shockingly few options.
You can already do that. Just skip the WiFi step in the setup then plug your own box into the HDMI port.
Google TV, WebOS and Tizen models let you do this, only Roku and Fire TV don't AFAIK.
I have faith that soon even 'dumb' devices will ship with small multi-year battery powered cell-connected evices that cannot be disabled, and are not part of an OS.
Yeah. Looks like RootmyTV is only for older models of LG TVs and that's kind of sad.
You're not too far off: there are water kettles and rice cookers (Xiaomi) and vacuum cleaners with app support (and definitely not collecting telemetry...)
There are also refrigerators, washers, dryers and dishwashers that collect telemetry.
It can't send screen shots if it doesn't connect to the internet. I own an LG TV and it's never been connected to a network.
For those of you who need it:
Press the Settings button on your remote (the gear icon).
When the side menu pops up, select Settings.
Choose the General option.
Scroll down and select System.
5, Select Additional Settings.
Plenty of TVs are capable of radioing your neighbour's TV and piggybacking off their internet connection, so if it's not in a Faraday cage, it might be overconfident to say it's never been connected to a network.
Source on this?
I don’t know if they use it on their Fire TVs but Amazon Sidewalk, for instance, does exactly what the previous commenter described.
Not OP, but I have heard that some smart TVs do automatically join open networks. Whether it's true or not, I can't say.
But if it is true, I would imagine it would vary between manufacturers and even specific device models.
You're going to need to provide some evidence for such a claim. That doesn't even sound legal.
Not OP but I think this guy is remembering a scene from silicon valley, not from reality. That said it's probably not that far off. Amazon smart devices absolutely have this "feature" in production today-- and it's opt-out, not opt-in.
Thanks for that. Just another reason to be glad I've banned any Amazon devices in my house. It's already insane enough to me that people literally have to think before they speak in their own homes to avoid accidentally triggering the always-listening robo-creepy-spy in the next room.
Interesting. But my house basically is a faraday cage. I have no signal outside it from my wifi or any of the others because of the way they were constructed. I have to have wifi repeaters indoors and a mobile repeater setup to get cell coverage inside.
So I guess I'm lucky in that respect.
But all in all this is good information for people to know including me. Thanks for that.
I also have an LG TV that I do not connect to the internet. How have you solved the problem of it frequently harassing you to recalibrate the screen, and connect to the internet?
I haven't but that's probably because I don't use it to do anything that would require that. Like. Everything (switching inputs, volume etc) is handled by my receiver. The devices that are hooked up to the receiver all have their settings on device.
It may also depend on what firmware your TV came with and what model you have?
Sorry I can't be more help.
I basically just assume that anything which is closed-source, networked and has sensors of any kind is a spying device. It's easier than evaluating each one individually.
It's called Live Plus.
If you've never heard of Live Plus before, it's a feature on LG smart TVs that uses ACR (automatic content recognition) to analyze what's displayed on your screen (via The Markup). LG then uses that data to offer "personalized services," including content recommendations and advertisements.
[...]
On Samsung smart TVs, for example, you can disable targeted ads by going to Privacy Choices, selecting Terms and Conditions, and toggling off Viewing Information Services and Internet-Based Advertisement Services. On Roku TVs, ACR can be turned off by disabling Use info from TV inputs, which is tucked away in the settings menu under Smart TV Experience.
Saved you a click.
LG doesn't make disabling Live Plus too hard, though you do have to click through a few menus. If you want to turn it off, here's how:
1. Press the Settings button on your remote (the gear icon).
2. When the side menu pops up, select Settings.
3. Chose the General option.
4. Scroll down and select System.
5, Select Additional Settings.
6. Toggle Live Plus off.
In the Settings menu on its TVs, LG says, "By turning Live Plus on, you understand that the content displayed on your TV can be recognized, and that the viewing information may be used to provide you with an enhanced viewing experience and personalized services including content recommendations and advertisements."
And then fingers crossed. Since you don't know if this option is doing something at all. After all their source code is not open source.
Anyhow.. Have fun. Good luck. And it's better to fully disconnect your smart TV from the internet and wifi. And just use your own home theater computer with Linux. And don't use any of their smart features or apps.
I've decided my next TV will be a Digital Sinage Display.
I'm in the same boat... Somewhere out there, there MUST be a high quality panel with good contrast, viewing angles, and motion, WITHOUT the spyware garbage in it.
I imagine the price of such a TV would be quite high, since the manufacturer would need to make up for the revenue lost from not having spyware.
They do tend to be more expensive. But not extremely so. Maybe 20-40% more than a consumer equivalent.
The retail industry generally uses NEC/Sharp and similar displays, but they are expensive as they are metal-cased and built to run reliably all day every day.
Modern electronics and computers are a nightmare.
I have an LG "Smart" TV, but because I don't use it much (view the News in the Public TV and little more) I never connected it to the WiFi, so offline this Live Plus is irrelevant for me.
Not necessarily. Manufacturers have been known to use ad-hoc networks to find a path back home.
For example your neighbour gets a smart tv and connects to the internet. Now your smart tv connected to your neighbours and phones home.
Any proof of this. First I've heard about it.
Exactly. Desoldering the wifi antennas is about the best you can do.
For what we see nowadays in TV, I often thought to substitute it with a Fishtank, smarter content, HD 3D, true color and no spyware
Enough is enough. If I ever buy a TV, I will personally tear out anything even remotely resembling an antenna (including destroying PCB antennas).
I’ve never found a compelling reason to buy a TV. Now if computer monitors ever go “smart” then I’m in trouble.