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It’s not just LG. Every TV company is spying on you (www.theverge.com)
submitted 1 week ago by to c/privacy@lemmy.world
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Crossposted from https://infosec.pub/post/52518361

The TV world has been a pot of controversy thanks to a two-hour-and-15-minute video from Gamers Nexus claiming LG TVs are nefariously spying on everything you do. They can record and store audio even when they seem to be off, track everything you watch, and could even be hacked remotely and turned into covert surveillance […]

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[–] 27 points 1 week ago (16 children)

My Samsung tv literally phones home and Netflix 24/7 even when it is off. My “Sniffet” app screams with nothing but Samsung and Netflix garbage URLs. So does my pi-hole. It’s insane how any of this is actually even legal.

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  • [–] 34 points 1 week ago (2 children)

    FYI the default blocklist included with PiHole does not block smart TVs. Strongly recommend Perflyst SmartTV List:

    https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Perflyst/PiHoleBlocklist/master/SmartTV.txt

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  • [–] 10 points 1 week ago

    I don’t use the default one from pihole, I had to dig around to find the ones that actually did block all the ads and other garbage. But I’ll definitely dig into the link you have provided. Much appreciated, fellow great human being <3

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  • [–] 4 points 1 week ago (8 children)

    Can they be rooted? I'm honestly about to throw them out.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 week ago (7 children)

    I know LG TVs can rooted, but I don’t know about Samsung. It actually won’t matter anymore until the government legislates something to make this shit illegal. All of this actually go against the 4th amendment in the US. I that LG has been talking about putting a little modem in their displays that gets its internet from the whole neighborhood’s routers after some deals with AT&T (I think). So then disconnecting the tv from your home network won’t matter.

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  • [–] 9 points 1 week ago (2 children)

    The fourth amendment only binds the government, not private individuals or companies.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 week ago (1 child)

    True, but how many of these companies don’t actually give that data to the government?

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  • [–] 1 point 1 week ago

    Well that's the loophole in the Fourth Amendment, as long as anyone gives the data willingly the government is off the hook, even if the person who gave it stole it illegally. As long as the govt didn't force someone to without due process, they're in the clear.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 week ago (3 children)

    See the same on my pi-hole. Chromecast is especially evil.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 week ago (2 children)

    They can get around your Pi Hole with DNS over HTTPS these days. I don't have one. Do you find yours still works well?

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  • [–] 3 points 1 week ago (1 child)

    I've censored so much traffic that it has issues with certain things. If there wasn't a price crisis I had planned to build my own Android TV box with an old Intel NUC or such but not at these prices. I've not looked into anything about DNS over https. I am behind a VPN at the router though not sure if that helps.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 week ago

    I appreciate the info! A TV box really doesn't require much in the way of hardware. Have you considered picking up an old laptop? I personally use a SteamLink to stream from my desktop. (Pretty rare that I want to watch TV and game at the same time.)

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