The researchers have discovered that automatic content recognition (ACR) tracking is active most of the time, even when TVs are used as “dumb” HDMI devices. In other words, the TV manufacturers are monitoring your private moments as well. There’s apparently no monitoring of streaming content in the UK, but there is in the US.

The only good news is that these TVs can seemingly be configured to disable ACR, provided the owners know this activity is taking place and are able to find the right settings. (I recently looked at the configuration of our TVs again, and understanding the various settings was far from easy.)

    • Majestic@lemmy.ml
      1·
      24 hours ago

      If you block ALL traffic from it? Sure. It’s possible but more involved and requires the right hardware to block their tracking domains while leaving streaming apps working.

      It’s best not to use smart TVs as well smart TVs. The apps they have are almost always slower or inferior in some way to the versions you get on streaming devices, updated less often, etc. I recommend pairing a TV with a quality streaming device like an Nvidia shield (or shield pro) or an AppleTV*. Alternatively if you want something a little cheaper in Androidtv space there is the Walmart brand Onn 4k pro.

      *warning with Apple is while they’re pretty good on privacy (meh, there are no excellent choices that support streaming apps in 1080p quality) and don’t have ads their app-store is a bit more locked down. They have all the major streaming services but if you do high seas type stuff it will be more involved and difficult. Though if you have a local media collection (source your own discs or high seas) and run Plex or Jellyfin they have apps for both of those that work great as well as Infuse which usually requires a subscription unless you don’t need 4k or any proprietary audio codecs like dolby for any of your media. I personally can say I enjoy my AppleTV 4K and I think it’s a great device but I run my own media-server and have some common streaming services I pay for.

    • Chais@sh.itjust.works
      1·
      1 day ago

      No. You need to request your Netflix video, you need to ACK the segments of it you receive and a lot more.
      At the very least you’ll need to maintain a detailed whitelist of allowed domains and especially for the manufacturer some packets might he OK, like checking for updates, while others you’ll wanna block.

      It’s likely a lot easier to just get a dumb screen and have the smart in a device you control.

  • grue@lemmy.worldEnglish
    591·
    2 days ago

    Another thing, just like the LG TV screensaver ads from the other thread, that would be a felony if a natural person did it.

    Why are we tolerating this criminal behavior by corporations?

    • seaQueue@lemmy.world
      12·
      2 days ago

      Why are we tolerating this criminal behavior by corporations?

      Because it’s done in the open and it’s accepted as part of the cost of the device. This is an expected consequence of our adtech surveillance economy where devices are now subsidized because they can harvest data about you, your usage and your behavior to sell on an ongoing basis. We’ve been screaming about these sorts of practices since the late 90s and consumers have just blithered right along with every new and creepy intrusion because they get cheap things and don’t think about the real costs or consequences. And so … Here we are.

  • TheImpressiveX@lemmy.ml
    21·
    2 days ago

    If you’re concerned about this, you may want to consider buying a commercial display, which is basically just a giant monitor. They’re meant for businesses and hospitals, so they’re going to be expensive. Many brands such as LG and Samsung sell commercial displays.

    Anothet alternative is to buy a projector. Projectors offer a much more “cinematic” experience, and they can be cheaper in comparison to commercial displays. Although there are a few projectors that have smart (anti-)features, most of them lack these. For a projector, I recommend the BenQ HT2060. It’s confirmed to have no smart features, and supports HDR.

    • chunkystyles@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      4·
      1 day ago

      Unfortunately, that’s no guarantee. I believe some devices have been found to scan for any open WiFi and join silently so they can phone home.

  • smpl@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    20·
    2 days ago

    Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) [42] is widely used for second-party tracking in smart TVs. As shown in Figure 1, ACR periodically captures frames (and/or audio), builds a fingerprint of the content, and then shares it with an ACR server for matching it against a database of known content (e.g., movies, ads, live feed). When the fingerprint matches, ACR server can determine exactly what piece of content is being watched on the smart TV.

    https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.06203

  • 🦄🦄🦄@feddit.orgDeutsch
    17·
    2 days ago

    My TV is connected to my WiFi but I blocked its internet access via router and it only has the jellyfin app which of course runs through a local server on the same network☺

    • seaQueue@lemmy.world
      101·
      2 days ago

      I’m just waiting for them to add a sideband channel to some LoRa network so they can exfiltrate data even when their devices are “offline”

      • Suburbanl3g3nd@lemmings.world
        1·
        1 day ago

        I have been thinking more on this. Seems like a spare router with no Internet should suffice. Gives it a connection with no Internet so it can’t go anywhere and since it has a connection it shouldn’t be hunting for open networks

      • dubyakay@lemmy.ca
        1·
        2 days ago

        I dunno. I was able to open my wife’s Sony Xperia to DIY battery swap, and then break (and fail to resolder) the antenna in the process. Can’t be that hard on a smart TV.