This is why you should never get a smart tv especially from Samsung, like what even is all this… They need analytics for every single component in the system lol
This was picked up using a pi hole, highly recommend installing one on your network
Questions:
Why did you get a smart tv? Well I got the TVs for free otherwise I would have gone with a more privacy friendly option.
The worst with those, is that they NEVER stop trying to call home when you block them. You better block those entries. The SmartTV ones are inclued in many Pihole compilation lists, but you can take that one to block it on your network via your router for example : https://github.com/Perflyst/PiHoleBlocklist/blob/master/SmartTV-AGH.txt (Also available as a host list).
Yeah no I get like 40,000 plus queries blocked a day just from the TVs we own like 4 though so 🤷♂️
And what’s worst is when your setting up the tv, they make you not block the domains cause they bind the terms of service you have to accept at the start with the domains. Similar to how Tesla does telemetry with their cars. Tesla binds music steaming and telemetry, etc
4 tvs? Why not use cheap monitors with cheap computers?
Just don’t connect them to the internet and plug in a PC or some local Kodi or Plasma Bigscreen device or something? I don’t see why you should use the functionality it provides.
Sadly it’s not possible to buy a dumb TV anymore with the same kind of screen quality as smart TV’s…
In any case it’s better to not connect them to the internet, because they almost all use outdated software that is never patched.
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I’m with @PureTryOut on this one. Just connect the TV to the mains and HDMI and leave everything else alone. Besides, aren’t monitors of comparable size pricier than TVs?
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@onlooker@lemmy.ml is right, monitors of comparable size are way pricier than TV’s. If you want something big, you get a TV.
Alternative you can look at this way. The TV price is subsidized by analytics revenue stream however if you’re a tech savy user and have a pi hole (or similar) you get a free discount!
I’m not sure if my grandma really cares that Sony is analyzing the soap operas she’s watching.
I really don’t think the price is subsidised but sorry if you were joking.
It most definitely is!
Some sources:
https://www.businessinsider.com/smart-tv-data-collection-advertising-2019-1
https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/11/20908128/smart-tv-surveillence-data-collection-home-roku-amazon-fire-princeton-study
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/tech/talkingtech/2019/02/21/why-tvs-so-cheap-now-your-smart-tv-spying-you-money/2910013002/Yikes. Thanks for correcting me.
Smart TVs are also pretty useless in my experience. But I don’t use netflix et al and just torrent in the rare occasion I want to watch something.
I hate “smart” tvs. They come with the weakest chip possible and absolutely horrible software. When your top of the line BIGBRAND comes with worse software than few neckbeards coding for anime then you don’t really deserve to call anything smart.
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In fairly recent news people were talking about how Samsung TVs take regular screenshots and transmit them back home =\ Pretty shady. Samsung is a notoriously unethical corporation, though. They treat their employees like crap and are involved in so many corruption scandals here in Korea, to keep track you need to have a degree in Samsungology.
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Well I got the TVs for free so it’s a steal other wise I would have went with something more privacy friendly
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The only modern dumb TVs would be professional digital signage displays (which often have awesome connectivity features like a slot for the Raspberry Pi compute module for example), but they can cost several thousands of dollars where a Samsung would go for $600 or so.
I suggest the mid to high-range Panasonic TVs. They don’t get in your way or even advertise any “smart” features in the regular menus, and they’re well built, too.
But yeah, Samsung is the absolute worst and Android TV on Philips devices is following closely in their footsteps in terms of annoying spyware overfunctionality.
You might want to go as far as opening that TV up and physically removing the WiFi adapter from the mainboard (if that’s possible on your model). I remember a story where these would scan the area for open networks and connect to those without notice.
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you just need 1 raspberry pi to run pi hole and there are many lists with the ad/tracking/telemetry domains for roku and amazon fire tvs
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Yeah also be sure to setup ssh 👍 I’m planning on making a script or something to make it auto update on x time
