Guess why I don't own a smart TV.

Well glad that I still have my good old dumb 1080p LCD and my HTPC.

Anytime a company gets caught spying, it's pretty safe to assume they all do it but that company was just the first to get caught.

How to tell if something is possibly spying on you:

1. Can it connect to the internet?
2. Is the firmware/software controlled by a corporation?
3. Does it have sensors capable of surveillance, like a microphone or camera?

Solid article. Definitely recommend the read.

Here’s the video by Gamers Nexus the article is talking about. It’s 2 hours and 15 minutes long.

This is why I thought the "talk to your TV remote" things were all garbage...Involving a fucking microphone and a speech to text algorithm and potentially cloud bullshit just to fucking change a channel? Change the volume level? STUPID. It's much worse than just pressing a fucking button and having the volume / channel change immediately, as well as a needless sacrifice of what little remains of your privacy.

I don't get it with smart switches / smart fans and shit either. Like a light switch already works completely fine guys. I don't know why we need to be able to talk to this shit.

This article is utter bullshit normalizing this invasion of privacy by entertainment hardware vendors. "Everyone is doing it" is not a valid defense, it only shows that no one should be doing it and that the laws are too lax and not protecting people as they should.

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.