

Is Your TV Watching You? - eamann
http://eamann.com/tech/is-your-tv-watching-you/

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ToastyMallows
> _How easy would it be for one of these holes to let someone control my TV?
> My webcam? Easy._

Article doesn't provide any examples. Does anyone else have examples of this
happening or is this just FUD?

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fuzzywalrus
Agreed.

There was the instance of LG being outed for collecting the names of
images/movies/etc read from USB media being reported back to a central server
but not in the same Orwellian sense that webcams forever monitoring video
streams and archiving conversations.

I haven't read of any exploits of smart TVs being used to monitor subject.
Feasible? Sure. Reality? Probably not.

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eamann
I haven't read of anything specific to smart TVs either. But here's my
concern: this can (and is) happening with webcam-enabled, network-connected
computers. A smart TV is essentially just a computer that's _always_ network-
connected and, as evidenced by someone walking into a room and saying "TV on,"
always on as well.

Feasible? Very. Reality? We don't hear about every detected exploit ... Smart
TVs are new enough that, even if this _is_ happening today, we won't hear
about it in the media or online for quite some time.

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eamann
There's also further insight in the comments: [http://eamann.com/tech/is-your-
tv-watching-you/#comment-2529](http://eamann.com/tech/is-your-tv-watching-
you/#comment-2529)

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TrainedMonkey
What about Kinect, and equivalent Sony offering. These things communicate with
central servers to update firmware regularly. So in a single point of
vulnerability you can get access to millions of always on cameras and
microphones across entire world.

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ARothfusz
I think it is kind of funny that Samsung makes these smart TVs that watch and
listen to you all the time, but if you visit their campus in Seoul they put
little stickers over all the camera ports on your phones and laptops, over
your USB ports, and you're not allowed to bring in USB sticks at all.

[http://www.samsung.com/global/microsite/tv/2013_vi/mobile/ht...](http://www.samsung.com/global/microsite/tv/2013_vi/mobile/html/index.html)

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prestadige
Does anyone know if the NSA can watch me on my iMac without the little light
coming on?

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d0
Not if you disconnect the camera and mic. Bit of a pain to do on an iMac but
easy on an MBP (pre-Retina).

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olbert
i put stickers over any laptop and slate cameras unless I want to use them.
Audio is harder to control. Why don't hardware manufacturers provide a privacy
shutter that obscures the built in cameras unless you choose to open them?

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ToastyMallows
I imagine the business value just isn't there.

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newman8r
In soviet Russia...

