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Smart TVs are like “a digital Trojan Horse” in people’s homes | 48-page report urges FTC, FCC to investigate connected TV industry data harvesting. (arstechnica.com)

submitted 2 months ago by ZeroCool@slrpnk.net to c/technology@lemmy.world

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[–] Excrubulent@slrpnk.net 19 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

See, I just don't connect it to the network. It complained when I set it up but now it just works as a screen.

I've got a raspberry pi steaming my desktop to it with gamestream/sunshine/moonlight, and it's now as smart as my computer. It can even stream from different computers no matter where they are in the house, watch anything with stremio, and play games from them too. It's way better than using the youtube or netflix button on the TV, most of the services it offers I don't use anyway.

But actually pihole does sound like a good idea and maybe I should get that set up one of these days.

[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 30 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (4 children)

So with all the recent drama I learned that some TVs look for other open networks or other same brand TVs in range, and if found will join those networks and still share data.

So not connecting it isn't enough in all cases.

A pihole wouldn't solve this either if it was smart enough to know it's blocked and look elsewhere.

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 12 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

Gotcha, find its card and rip it out.

[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago

In the not so distant future, people will begin turning their houses into faraday cages to ensure nothing can access the outside unless given proper permission.

[–] werefreeatlast@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

This is the way.

[–] Excrubulent@slrpnk.net 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I'd be interested to see more information on that. I don't doubt companies would do that, but some good information on when it happens and how to prevent it would be useful.

[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

So I did some looking, and as far as I can tell, there's no definitive proof of someone testing this and reporting on it. It might just be all rumors and speculation.

[–] Excrubulent@slrpnk.net 1 points 2 months ago

Thanks, I hope they don't do it. I would expect the security community to be able to find something like this, since it's not hard to hook up some devices and do packet sniffing to detect if they're talking to each other.

This would be an excellent use case for LTT's faraday cage room for instance.

[–] rustydomino@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You could set up a dummy LAN with no internet access for the tv. Unless it actually has more than one network card, it would need to be able to have the ability to virtualize network interfaces to connect elsewhere, and I really doubt these TVs are that smart.

[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

Ah, gotcha. That would seem like overkill if that's what would be needed.

[–] IMNOTCRAZYINSTITUTION@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

can't you set a password so it can't join willy nilly?

[–] PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

That would only work until your neighbor leaves their guest WiFi open.