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submitted 1 month ago by yxc999@lemmy.ml to c/privacy@lemmy.ml
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[-] Not_mikey@lemmy.dbzer0.com 228 points 1 month ago

10 years ago OP would've been labeled a schizo, now we just accept there's microphones in everything

[-] IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world 55 points 1 month ago

i hate living in a cyberpunk dystopia

[-] RagingRobot@lemmy.world 20 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

It looks way cooler in the movies and video games. We were tricked!

[-] AAA@feddit.org 18 points 1 month ago

Because in the movies and video games we see the main character. For the NPCs it sucks... and that's us.

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[-] myyass@lemmy.world 39 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

You know the irony of this is? My ex-fiances father was labeled as schizophrenic. I mean he was by textbook definition. One day, I would take her to visit him, he says that computers are tracking you. Now, I brushed it off at the time, probably a conspiracy theory right? but I did think about it.

L3 was tracking internet data already, at least, in the early 2000's. A little game of what's connecting to my computer showed me that, but I didn't know what it was at the time. Well now I know, g-sec company has been tracking us from routers for over twenty years; same company after the merger that makes EOTECHs. So the puzzle pieces came together.

I kind of wondered if he really was schizophrenic or medicated to be so? As an a example, tramadol made me have auditory hallucinations that I've never experience on acid or mushrooms (college lol).

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[-] thermal_shock@lemmy.world 22 points 1 month ago

I will still argue phones listen to us. Don't care what you say, it happens. Act accordingly

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[-] Zephorah@discuss.online 141 points 1 month ago

This should be a web site or YT channel. How to remove such bits without bricking the item.

[-] TheyCallMeHacked@discuss.tchncs.de 91 points 1 month ago

To be fair, OP didn’t claim that the remote wasn’t bricked…

[-] yxc999@lemmy.ml 88 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

It works! I was fully prepared for it to not work and explain to my wife why we need to order a new one, but no issue at all lmao

[-] lawks@aussie.zone 18 points 1 month ago

Could probably have measured its resistance, then put a plain resistor in its place.

[-] yxc999@lemmy.ml 30 points 1 month ago

Probably, but the nuclear option is always more fun

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[-] yxc999@lemmy.ml 31 points 1 month ago

Looking up which part to nuke took an hour, but anything to calm down my paranoid ass haha

[-] surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 63 points 1 month ago

"Oh good, he fell for the decoy"

[-] yxc999@lemmy.ml 38 points 1 month ago
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[-] MadBits@europe.pub 87 points 1 month ago

FYI: Any speaker can and will be used as a microphone.

[-] cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca 29 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

We're really fucked aren't we.

So just remove my sim card and unplug my firewall? Got it.

[-] MadBits@europe.pub 38 points 1 month ago

You would be surprised about the capabilities we had in 1970-80s for spying, with way way less technology than what we have today. At this point I think privacy is just a myth, we can literally use light to listen on people by having it bounce off of their windows and interpreting it back as sound. As a side note, rich people do use windows with a vibrating feature exactly to block this old method. There's literally very little you can do if you are targeted by the government. (Except leaving the country, if possible)

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[-] webghost0101@sopuli.xyz 72 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Remember ye old life-hack that you can use earbuds as a microphone in a pinch?

Speakers and microphones are conceptually the same technology. If your tv can play sound then in theory it can be used by a malicious hacker or company to record sound.

[-] TheBlackLounge@lemmy.zip 42 points 1 month ago

Only the cone-magnet-coil-wires part is the same. All the electrical parts are different. There's no way.

[-] webghost0101@sopuli.xyz 26 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

As far as i could research it is technically feasible though very impractical and low quality, way easier to sell people voice command features instead.

As i understand it also depends on whether its a “active” speaker or not, has an amplifier behind it.

Tvs usually use a speaker array, a bad actor company could design it in a way that one or two of those can be used to record sound in case the microphone is no longer detected.

An ad collector wouldn’t go that far on purpose, a state intelligence operator who is covertly part of the company might.

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[-] hirihit640@sh.itjust.works 17 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

SPEAKE(a)R: Turn Speakers to Microphones for Fun and Profit

Seems to have some caveats but I'm not an expert.

Edit: fixed link

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[-] sunth1ef@sh.itjust.works 52 points 1 month ago

While you're at it, disconnect your "smart TV" from the internet!

[-] Luccus@feddit.org 16 points 1 month ago

Which means disconnecting it's WiFi, because some may connect to open hotspots without asking.

[-] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 21 points 1 month ago

ISP routers/modems will often have secondary wifi networks that allow access to subscribers. I can absolutely believe these smart devices connect to them automatically.

Buy your own modem and router, and root the router to install Open Source firmware that gives you control of the internet.

And maybe do some Minecraft stuff with the Flock camera down the street.

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[-] ragebutt@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 1 month ago

This is the far easier approach, but if you live somewhere densely populated (like an apartment building) keep in mind it’s been rumored that smart TVs can make a mesh network to upload data without a connection. Though to my knowledge this has never been definitively shown to be true

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[-] ragebutt@lemmy.dbzer0.com 41 points 1 month ago

FYI most modern TVs have a second microphone actually in the display that’s actually used for the nefarious tracking and listening for assistant wake words to save remote battery life

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[-] UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml 38 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Things will become more obscure and harder to disable. In fact since you own nothing and you'll be happy, youre damaging government property and the police are already dispatched to take you to a totally cool and totally legal prison slave camp.

[-] lemming741@lemmy.world 19 points 1 month ago

Nah they won't send the cops, you just gotta drink a verification can

[-] IsoKiero@sopuli.xyz 43 points 1 month ago

image

Greetings from Sony.

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[-] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 30 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

If you want to know ~~all~~ some of the ways your audio can be spied on.

Benn Jordan on audio spying: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEC6PM97IRI

He, surprisingly, did another: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5ynZ3lMQJc

[-] motionofethre@piefed.social 23 points 1 month ago

How did you find out there was a microphone? And how did you figure out which chip?

[-] yxc999@lemmy.ml 48 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

The TV advetises voice recognition in both the TV itself and the remote.

If you look at it, it's likely going to be a 2x4mm silver rectangle with a small hole in it. Not always, but they mostly look like that.

[-] JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl 23 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

There will almost always be a hole above it in the plastic remote housing.

MEMs microphones are a silver or black rectangle and it has to have a small hole in the top of the package https://www.st.com/en/mems-and-sensors/mems-microphones.html

Generally you can also just put a dab of hot glue over the top of the hole and it won't be able to hear shit, you don't necessarily have to desolder it, but it is the most effective.

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[-] bedwyr@piefed.ca 23 points 1 month ago

Thanks for the tip. But what about microphones in tv's, in I presume microwaves, washing machines, and everything else.

We need a way to jam up their ability to transmit the information back to Bezos' house or whatever.

[-] bold_atlas@lemmy.world 13 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Ethernet cables. Toss the wiSpy. Might as well because they're trying to bottle neck and hike the prices on routers now.

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[-] manuallybreathing@lemmy.ml 21 points 1 month ago

I think ill just jeep using my LCD from 2007

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[-] davetortoise@reddthat.com 21 points 1 month ago

I'm tempted to try this but I'm not sure how to identify the microphone or whether it would be in my remote or the TV itself. Is there some sort of guide on doing this?

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[-] Blizzard@lemmy.zip 20 points 1 month ago

It has no way of sending any recordings if you don't connect it to the Internet.

[-] white_nrdy@programming.dev 38 points 1 month ago

I have heard that some vendors support joining adhoc networks with others of the same brand. So if you have an LG TV (as an example) that you dont connect to the internet, but your neighbor has one that is connected, they could theoretically link up and bridge the unconnected one.

To be fair, this would have to be functionality included in the factory, and may not actually be a thing. But I remember reading something about it with LGs a few years ago, and it stuck with me.

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[-] artyom@piefed.social 14 points 1 month ago

Or just don't connect your TV?

[-] JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl 45 points 1 month ago

To the WiFi?

You are often forced to in order to set it up at all, the damage is already done if you disconnect it or VLAN quarantine it after that.

It doesn't stop the TV from spying on you. GN just proved that it runs STT and records your conversations in plaintext and has the memory to store them for eternity. It also gets your location from scanning WiFi, Bluetooth, and any other devices in the band and geolocating based off of their data.

Then if you ever sell the TV, it will dump the data if they connect it, or somebody with the same brand smart TV moved in next door, it will use that TV's hidden SSID hotspot to jump the airgap and dump all if its (likely time and position stamped) transcribed spying data to the servers.

Hardware fix is literally the only fix.

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[-] RedGreenBlue@lemmy.zip 29 points 1 month ago

And hope no open networks are in range, ever. Or it will exfiltrate collected data.

[-] Creat@discuss.tchncs.de 19 points 1 month ago

Or another TV of the same manufacturer that has Internet access.

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this post was submitted on 09 Sep 2026
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Privacy

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