These TVs can capture and identify 7,200 images per hour, or approximately two every second. The data is then used for content recommendations and ad targeting, which is a huge business; advertisers spent an estimated $18.6 billion on smart TV ads in 2022, according to market research firm eMarketer.
So… Can someone explain how this is legal if you’re watching DRM content? Capturing and uploading copyrighted, protected content doesn’t seem very kosher.
advertisers spent an estimated $18.6 billion on smart TV ads
Jesus. Spend a fraction of that developing good products that people will actually want to buy so you can end this unethical, scumbag way of making a buck.
NextDNS has a blocklist you can enable to block telemetry for Roku TVs FYI. You can also get a dumb TV or keep your TV offline and have a separate Kodi box for your shows.
That’s why i don’t connect mine to the internet and I black hole suspicious traffic
I have my old (stupid) tv from like 2013, works perfectly fine. No apps, no firmware, no ads, no tracking. Never felt the need to buy a smart tv, but I’m afraid it’d be near impossible to find a new one that isn’t nowadays I’d mine broke down.
This is the only reason I have a smart TV. I didn’t want one, in fact it prompted me to make an SSID and VLAN just for it, then applied a bunch of DNS blocks. Unfortunately my old 2012 TV wasn’t worth shipping across the country and the image was getting pretty dim and it had started developing dead pixels.
If you want anything above 1080p that’s a dumb TV you have to go commercial like the hospitality market and they charge you way more for it. And they won’t even sell it to you without a corporate account in most places.
The only way to get 4K and HDR without the smarts as a consumer is to buy a giant gaming monitor… and those too ask for quite a premium, because gamers.
Have you tried just not connecting it to the internet, and using a streaming box?
They come with the crap built in these days.
I know. Don’t connect it to the internet, and don’t use the crap
I opted to connect it because it’s the only device in the house Netflix is willing to give more than 720p. I hate DRM.
That’s just some epic bullshit. Netflix’s tiering is just asinine.
Obviously
Honestly the least I’d expect of a smart TV.
I am so glad I don’t have a TV. It’s just the Internet with even more ads, minus the Internet.
Doesn’t mention what circumstances it’s tracking your watching habits. If you’re watching an obscure movie on DVD, is it still looking at frames? Does it have to be through a streaming service being run on the TV? Does it recognize content being run on modern game consoles? Not a very informative article.
First, a quick primer on the tech: ACR identifies what’s displayed on your television, including content served through a cable TV box, streaming service, or game console, by continuously grabbing screenshots and comparing them to a massive database of media and advertisements. Think of it as a Shazam-like service constantly running in the background while your TV is on.
All of this is in the second paragraph of the article.
just plug a SBC running Kodi/jellyfin/whatever non-proprietary to a regular tv
It’s extremely difficult to find a dumb tv in sizes larger than ~55”. You really don’t have much choice at the moment. I personally host a jellyfin server and play that via apple tv over hdmi, but content recognition still does its thing. Best i could do was deny wifi/ethernet to the tv and have no open networks.
Yes, do exactly this. If you have AppleTV connected to your TV over HDMI or whatever, why does your TV need an internet connection?
You could always use a large monitor but the problem with that would be affordablity.
A TV that is not connected to the internet is effectively just a large monitor.
I understand that some TVs lock functionality and coerce you into connecting it to the network, but most of them function well as monitors. I know it’s tempting to make use of the “smart” features since it’s included, but if you care about privacy, it’s better to keep it off the internet.
My smart TV is blocked from the internet. It doesn’t know shit.
oh it knows. it just can’t tell anyone!
Considering I don’t connect it to the internet I’d be surprised if it was doing anything.
It’s brute-forcing your neighbors’ WiFis
“I’m in”
- your TV after hacking the neighbors tv.
Joke aside, would that make it basically anonymous? Unless it’s actually sending screenshots, it will only tell “somebody around this IP is watching TV/Something from HDMI”
Mine connects through pihole with all LG domains blocked. I’m not getting any update request, notifications or anything. Just Netflix.
That’s cool. I just use my shield
Did you read the article? It captures screenshots, doesn’t matter if you use a Shield, console or whatever.
Yes.I read it. And no I dont hook my TV to the Internet . It’s even blocked at the router level
