
Smart TVs like Samsung, LG and Roku are tracking everything - lsh
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/09/18/you-watch-tv-your-tv-watches-back/
======
walrus01
In my opinion you should not use ANY of the smart features of a "smart" TV.
Don't give it your wifi key and don't put it on your LAN.

I have about 400% more trust of Microsoft and Sony than I do of random smart
tv manufacturers. I also have a fairly high degree of confidence that the xbox
one and PS4 software will remain up to date with security patches, and address
critical issues quickly. I have no confidence for TVs.

Microsoft and Sony have teams of lawyers who've drafted the data
collection/data sharing/opt-out policies for what their current generation
game consoles track and phone home about. I've seen entirely too many reports
of "smart" TVs that start reporting your entire viewing habits, and/or
displaying unwanted ads.

Use the TV as a dumb display and hook it up to a PS4, Xbox One, and/or home
theatre PC.

~~~
smileybarry
> I have about 400% more trust of Microsoft and Sony than I do of random smart
> tv manufacturers.

It should be noted Sony's _TVs_ are different than their game consoles in what
they collect and do. They run a relatively clean version of Android TV except
for "Samba TV", which is yet another piece of show-recognizing (known as ACR)
analytics. However, you can apparently decline its privacy policy on initial
setup and even disable the APK entirely in settings[1]. (Some people also
succeeded in ripping it and other bundled video apps out via ADB)

Even given all that, Sony TVs are probably still the tamest smart TVs out
there.

> Don't give it your wifi key and don't put it on your LAN.

It entirely depends on manufacturer but I've heard of some actually _seeking
out open networks for internet access_ if you don't configure their Wi-Fi.
Some people reported an unconnected TV suddenly prompted to update because the
neighbour's wifi was unsecured. If you can, I'd set up a specific SSID with no
LAN or WAN access just in case.

[1] [https://www.consumerreports.org/privacy/how-to-turn-off-
smar...](https://www.consumerreports.org/privacy/how-to-turn-off-smart-tv-
snooping-features/)

~~~
greggman2
My Sony Smart TV is crap and I will never buy another Sony TV. Yes it runs
android. It's slow to respond to input. Sometimes when I'm guessing it needs
to page out code it can take 5-30 seconds before u can actually use it. It's
crashed in the middle of watching shows and I mean the TV is being used as a
dumb tv with input from an external source and suddenly android reboots. It
also covers the home screen with ads for shows/games/movies. If possible my
next TV will just be a 60inch monitor

~~~
darkteflon
I own a Sony smart TV - it’s awful. Far and away the worst piece of consumer
electronics I’ve ever owned. It’s ruined Sony for me as a brand. I always take
the opportunity to tell people how much I hate it whenever the opportunity
comes up.

~~~
kardos
Life imitates art: [https://www.theonion.com/sony-releases-new-stupid-piece-
of-s...](https://www.theonion.com/sony-releases-new-stupid-piece-of-shit-that-
doesnt-fuck-1819594774)

------
AdamJacobMuller
I had a very nice Sharp Aquos TV for a long time. One of the first reasonably
priced 1080p 65" TVs. It had absolutely no "smart" features, which was
perfectly fine with me. I have my TV hooked up to a home theatre system and
have my devices (PS4/AppleTV/XB1/Nvidia Shield) hooked up to that.

I recently upgraded to a LG 4K OLED TV. It's an absolutely gorgeous TV, but, I
absolutely lament the "smart" features of this TV. I get software update
prompts on a regular basis for software I don't use (I'm sure there would be
some for the base system anyway, but, an order of magnitude less). The prompts
when setting up the TV to accept myriad EULAs are obnoxious. Pop-ups
advertising "features" on my TV which I don't want? Ugh.

I really want either a manufacturer who resells these panels with 0 features,
or a mode from LG which disables all of this. "Lock to HDMI1 and disable
everything but color management features".

More on-topic with the article: I'm a pretty tech and legally-savvy guy, but,
even I'm not sure I've toggled the correct order of knobs and declined the
correct EULAs to disable that tracking. Moreover, I'm exactly 0% sure that
someone else didn't try to watch Netflix (via the TV and not the
AppleTV/Shield/PS4/etc) and wasn't prompted to accept EULAs to do that. My
point is, if I can't even do this properly, normal people have a near 0%
chance of disabling tracking.

That said, it's a fantastically gorgeous panel. I've had a lot of fun re-
watching older favorite movies in 4K.

~~~
tekstar
I recently bought an LG OLED as well.

I never connected it to my network and never will.

    
    
      It was a dark pattern during setup.  The options were to connect via LAN or WIFI, and only by scrolling into "nothing" did a skip option appear.
    

This ImO is the only option and even then I bet it's trying to exhilarate data
by like trying to connect to a phone or high frequency audio or something.

~~~
xwdv
How do you install firmware updates??

~~~
kspacewalk2
I bought a dumb tv in 2013 that I still use just fine without any firmware
updates. It's a screen, it needs no updates.

~~~
o-__-o
I plugged in my pre-all-devices-spy 10 year old dumb tv to the network for the
first time and now it hounds me for firmware updates.... I always reject
because I don’t want it to learn how to spy on me.

Pretty sure my firetv phones my hdmi content home

~~~
dghughes
Can't you set the onboard clock back a few years to fool it?

------
makecheck
The smarter a TV is, the stupider it breaks too.

My parents had a TV with a built-in Skype app, and at some point the TV maker
stopped supporting it. After that, _every single time the TV was turned on_
the TV popped up a vague modal error message (that didn’t even mention Skype,
just “an app” or something). I verified that it is _impossible_ to turn off
this message or do anything about it. Think about the stupidity.

~~~
c22
I bought a Vizio tv a couple years ago that came with a very simple remote.
The remote had power, volume, channel, and input buttons and nothing else. It
seemed like they intended you to pair it with a smart phone to change any real
settings. At some point about 8 months after I bought it turning on the screen
caused a message to be displayed informing me that there was a new more fully-
featured remote available and that they'd send one to me for free if I
registered at the displayed url. The message could only be dismissed using a
button that did not exist on the included remote. I literally could not use
the television for two weeks while I waited for the new remote to arrive in
the mail.

------
tzs
I wish that if they are going to insist on making their TVs smart, they would
take the time to _think_ about what people who use some of the apps would
want.

For example, my Samsung has apps that can stream radio, and apps for Spotify
and other music services.

But it evidently failed to occur to anyone at Samsung that since these are
_audio_ apps and do not need to use the screen while playing, I might want to
blank the screen once I start the stream.

I'm particularly irked at Samsung because when I searched online to see how to
blank the screen (I assumed it was obvious that they would include such a
feature, and I was just being dimwitted when it came to finding it), I found
that they used to have that feature, and they dropped it starting with the
model year of my TV!

~~~
oAlbe
I mean, how are you going to see the ads if the screen is blanked? It's not
that they didn't think about it, they did, they just went for the "feature"
that benefitted _them_ the most.

------
jernejzen
Earlier this year my company pitched anonymization solution for smart TV and
smart home appliances to LG and Samsung representatives in Korea.

Their reaction to a proposal was, to put it kindly, terrifying and highly
defensive. They said they are doing nothing wrong, no data has been leaked snd
that there is no future for our solution, sensing huge discomfort.

Quite evident they have zero interest to gamble status quo on current
situation.

~~~
soared
You pitched them a way to make less money?

------
dawnerd
I stopped connecting my TVs to the internet when Samsung started pushing
notification ads for GameFly on a (at the time) 3k dollar first gen 4K tv -
and they lied and said no they’d never do that. They’ve all lost my trust.

~~~
prawn
I disabled autoupdates on everything after a smart TV whose dashboard I'd laid
out to suit me, auto-updated and insisted on dashboard apps that I never
wanted and couldn't delete or hide. Got an Apple TV and have not touched the
smart TV features since.

~~~
sowbug
Sounds like Vizio. Five years now and I still re-delete the Yahoo Finance app
every couple months.

~~~
jerrysievert
I once connected my vizio tv to the wifi. ended up having to change the wifi
password, since there was no way to forget the network on the vizio.

haven't had an update since, and not upset about that.

------
myrakle
I use the PCWRT router, and it allows me to block the spying by blacklisting
the relevant domains.

[https://www.pcwrt.com/2018/08/how-to-use-your-router-to-
bloc...](https://www.pcwrt.com/2018/08/how-to-use-your-router-to-block-smart-
tv-snooping/)

~~~
Mirioron
At some point I wonder if we might not just start whitelisting domains
instead. I think that it could be possible to design a UX that wouldn't be
much of a hindrance to using your computer and phone on the same network. Eg
any websites you deliberately visit get added to the whitelist, same with the
other services you choose to use.

The amount of mostly unintentional (by the user) data transfers is out of
hand.

~~~
egdod
And then everybody starts collecting data via AWS or whatever.

~~~
Mirioron
Even then, can't you tailor the whitelisting in a way where it only whitelists
specific services on AWS? You could even make it timed so that other IOT
devices can't exploit it.

------
Diesel555
Roku scares me when I'm watching movies on my Rapsberry Pi. They are .mp4
files. I'm not using their software at all... and about 2 minutes in I get a
pop-up "You can view this move elsewhere at XYZ." How do they know what movie
I'm watching? They are analyzing the feed. Scary.

~~~
cbg0
> They are analyzing the feed. Scary.

More likely just looking at the title of the file and matching that against
themoviedb.

~~~
sintaxi
My guess would be the distribution companies provide them a hash table of MD5s
that maps popular torrents to places where they can be purchased. The company
that makes the TV sells this services to the distribution company and/or gets
a cut of the sales. Furthermore, it probably logs the IP of the person
watching the pirated file and sells that data also.

~~~
crtasm
All the device is seeing in this case is audio+video over the HDMI connection,
no way it can md5sum the source file.

------
neonate
[https://web.archive.org/web/20191002013559/https://www.washi...](https://web.archive.org/web/20191002013559/https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/09/18/you-
watch-tv-your-tv-watches-back/)

~~~
noyesno
The paywall JavaScript still kicks in after reading the article for a while
via archive.org.

This should not suffer from the same issue:
[http://archive.is/8Cm3Q](http://archive.is/8Cm3Q)

------
Macha
Unfortunately, I need to consent to tracking by the WaPo to find out how much
my Smart TV might be tracking me.

~~~
sailfast
I’ve found disabling JavaScript on their site also disabled their subscription
/ paywall API which is all JavaScript.

~~~
6gvONxR4sf7o
It also happens to disable quite a bit of tracking. Yay for selectively
whitelisting JS!

------
codedokode
You are discussing here how to isolate the TV into a separate firewalled
network, but for an average consumer this is too difficult. What an average
consumer wants is to watch Youtube and Netflix and not bother about settings.
If I was a TV manufacturer I would install a video camera and microphone and
record everything and people would still buy my TVs.

------
benmarks
We need legislation which deals with the reality of the PII loophole. While
the ACR data on its own may not identify me/my household, it absolutely does
once it's combined with the rest of my fingerprint in the cloud.

------
nrp
A “Dumb TV” is something I’m exploring developing. There is a gap in the
market for a TV with a great panel, no internet connection, and only the
processing strictly required for various types of signal processing and format
conversion. The closest available solutions are large commercial monitors that
cost an arm and a leg.

~~~
soared
Did you do any market research? You can very easily go to any store and still
buy dumb TVs. I don’t know where people get the idea that 100% of tvs are
smart tvs, but that is false.

~~~
nrp
Rtings pretty comprehensively catalogs and reviews mid and high end TVs. The
only TV released in the last two years without WiFi or associated smart
functionality is a pretty mediocre 49" TCL. While you can certainly still get
smaller 1080p TVs without smarts, you shouldn't have to choose between getting
a decent size and panel quality or not having a beefy OS built in.

~~~
hajhatten
So you're saying he didn't do his market research? :D

------
thom
TVs used to be on and showing you a picture before you took your thumb off the
channel button on your remote. Good times.

~~~
tenebrisalietum
The old CRTs I grew up with need a good 15-20 seconds to warm up first, but
you did have the audio pretty instantly.

------
yegor
Run a Pi-Hole, use it as the DNS server for your "Smart" TV.

Too lazy? Shameless self promotion:
[https://windscribe.com/features/robert](https://windscribe.com/features/robert)

~~~
fernly
Wait wait wait. Windscribe, which looks like a heckuva VPN, where does it run?
Because we are talking about filtering or blocking the data flow between the
TV and the local router, i.e. the connection between the TV and my Comcast
router. How does Windscribe get involved in that stream?

~~~
smileybarry
I'm guessing it's just a DNS server blackholing/NXDOMAIN-ing certain domains
and the connections aren't actually proxied, like the old OpenDNS home.

------
gumby
Surely this is a non-issue if you don’t connect the TV itself to the internet?

~~~
rladd
Not if you use a box like Roku, etc.

~~~
cryptozeus
Won’t the roku only needs to be connected to internet and not tv itself? Right
?

------
jngreenlee
Just a quick note... hotel/hospitality versions don't have these requirements.
Look for them on Alibaba and overstock.

~~~
puranjay
That's a really smart tip. Thanks for sharing!

------
pedrorissato
I kinda have a felling that in a future not to far, iots devices collecting
our data will be mandatory... and if you want a device that do not collect
your data you'll probably end it up having to pay 3-5x more for that product.
Its kind of an addiction and companies need rehab already.

~~~
panpanna
This is most certainly what will happen if there is not a massive push back
from consumers soon.

And I don't see it coming. Older people don't even seem to care that Imo is
secretly recording them as longs as they can videochat with their
grandchildren. Younger people are just happy for their new shiny toys.

------
sailfast
Has anyone successfully hacked any of these TVs to disable the smart features?
I would pay some money for this kind of firmware patch on a future purchase.
It seems crazy that the software is so terrible and yet nobody has found a way
to disable it.

~~~
jaclaz
There are projects to replace/root/modify the OS, unfortunately they tend to
be about older models and the manufacturers continue changing things and
making access more difficult.

Examples:

[https://wiki.samygo.tv/index.php?title=Main_Page](https://wiki.samygo.tv/index.php?title=Main_Page)

[https://forum.xda-developers.com/web-os/general/rooting-
webo...](https://forum.xda-developers.com/web-os/general/rooting-webos-
tv-t3656027)

------
ksec
Which is the reason why Apple should enter the TV market. The argument against
it from the likes of Benedict Evans to Horace Dediu has been TV is a low
margin business, but so are all the Android Phones in the bottom 60% of the
market. I still dont get it.

And since Apple TV sort of means 5 to 6 different things [1], they might as
well make an actual Apple TV set to make it even more complicated.

If there are two things that I think Apple should really do, are Wireless
Router and TV. I dont want a Google Nest WiFi or Amazon Eero.

[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21438152](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21438152)

------
bitwize
Just get a Sceptre TV. Up to 4K resolution, no smart features.

------
arminiusreturns
Once again, a problem that could easily be solved by requiring a right to root
as part of the right to repair. I hate how so many of these are running linux
on the underside but you can't do anything with it. I had a friend who got a
Samsung smarttv and when I looked up rooting it, the chances were high of
bricking it, so we decided not to do it.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, the way we prevent this is in
right to repair legislation that includes the right to root.

------
qwerty456127
It also is extremely hard to fix a smart TV once it gets infected with a
virus.

Just don't buy smart TVs. Buy a dumb TV, attach a RaspberryPi or an Intel NUC,
install Kodi and enjoy.

~~~
rco8786
Would love to. Who is currently making these dumb TVs? I’m in the market and
can’t find anything.

~~~
namibj
Iiyama is one if them. Don't consider branding, look for tech specs/price.

~~~
rco8786
They appear to specialize in PC monitors? I see a few commercial-looking LED
screens they make but they're super expensive for what they are

~~~
namibj
They make zero-fuss LCD screens, many of them with standard VESA mounting and
HDMI input(s).

Some of them are low-duty digital signage, or have a less-beefy desktop
brother with the same/similar software and just mechanical/(power) electronics
differentiating them between 8/5 and 24/7 usage to keep their warranty.

You are looking wrong when you make the price argument. Either your price
source is weird, or you're looking at the "wrong" model. Just keep in mind
that these are not your generic high-gloss consumer electronics flashy
devices, but what a value-oriented engineering office might well use. I have
yet to find a better LCD than their x4071uhsu-b1 ... Seriously, if you know of
something comparable in contrast ratio: I dread the day mine breaks and I need
to find a replacement.

------
ph2082
I shifted house 3 years ago and sold old TV at that time. Thought going to buy
new Smart TV. But 1 month passed and I didn't missed TV (also skeptical about
tracking thing).

I realised after spending working hours in front of Monitor/Laptop, my eyes
can use some rest. So NO TV in weekdays.

I have bought 30 inch monitor, connected to home desktop and use it for
entertainment - Netflix, sports etc.

NO TV is an option. Some day going to upgrade to bigger monitor.

------
tyingq
TCL says you can disable the internal Roku and make it a dumb TV.
[https://support.tclusa.com/televisions-setup-
configurations/...](https://support.tclusa.com/televisions-setup-
configurations/189404-can-you-turn-off-the-roku-feature-and-use-it-as-a-
regular-tv)

------
dillutedfixer
Nice, my smart TV has been peeping on me playing Peep Show on repeat.

More seriously, our privacy has been nullified by ferocious marketing and
advertising tactics. Data collection has weaved its way into the design of
most of the products we use, it was only a matter of time.

I know you can opt out of all of the collection on a Samsung. Just have to not
agree to all of the Terms and Services. That being said, I've heavily isolated
the Samsung in the house. It sits on its own VLAN that cant talk to anything
else on the lan and use some heavy white/blacklisting at the DNS level to
limit what it can get to on the internet. I'm sure it's still uploading
something about me to somewhere though.

------
fulldecent2
Here is the actual Samsung screen that you can't opt out of:

[https://twitter.com/fulldecent/status/1067258123545661441](https://twitter.com/fulldecent/status/1067258123545661441)

~~~
ozymandias12
Actually you can opt out nowadays. For Samsung smart tvs:

Menu > Smart Hub > Terms and Conditions

Inside there will be several terms of these tracking companies. Go inside each
and all of them and check the box:

    
    
        I don't agree with these terms
    

There. No consent for track.

Have not tested network wise if the tracking persists, but in theory, removing
consent should mean they can't collect it.

------
brightrooms
Not just tvs. All appliances are getting "smart". Refrigerators, washers, etc
are or will track you too. You'll have the convenience of connecting to your
fridge to see what you need to buy at the supermarket. Eventually, the fridge
will just send you notifications of things you need to buy. Very convenient,
but the fridge manufacturer will also know what you eat, when you shop, where
you shop and everything you do in your kitchen. I suspect sooner or later,
there will be period of consolidation amongst the appliance companies so that
they will be able to see everything you do in your house.

~~~
WWLink
5 years ago I bough the cheapest side-by-side fridge Best Buy had. It is a
$900 whirlpool OEM Amana. It's as dumb as the refrigerator my parents had 20
years ago. :D No complaints here! It works great!

~~~
perl4ever
I got a GE washer/dryer pair recently that seem to be pretty "dumb" \- no
wifi, no electronic display, washer is top loading and has an agitator, you
can set it to use a reasonable amount of water...

And despite GE becoming a Chinese brand, they seem to have regained a
reputation for reliability somewhat, based on the reviews I read.

------
trianglem
If you don’t want the “smart” features, just never enter your WiFi password.

~~~
mopsi
Sadly, this will only push TV manufacturers harder to implement built-in
always-on 5G connectivity that completely bypasses the end user.

~~~
eumenides1
That sounds amazing, a free 5g connection with every tv!

cellular connection is still prohibitively expensive in many parts of the
world.

~~~
codedokode
Yes, but this connection will be restricted to connect only to Google's cloud.

~~~
bartvanH
then you just run one of their cheapest vms as a proxy/router?

------
tehabe
I own an Samsung smart TV and will so in the future but I wonder if this is
only true if you activate the "smart hub" or if this is this true if you just
connect the device to your network.

I personally use a Chromecast for my smart TV needs, which of course Google
knows everything about. But the chromecast can't see anything else I do, no
broadcast TV or if I use the DLNA function.

I wonder when right holders demand those information to sue people who watch
"illegal" content on their TVs.

------
walterkrankheit
Not connecting to Wifi doesn't really seem to be an option for me. I bought my
Samsung smart TV purely with the intention of using it for Netflix, Blu-Ray
and Youtube (which is already tracked). It sometimes connects to television if
the source gets switched, but I've randomly had it on the same German nature
channel since day one. I'm not even sure what the rules are for TV tracking in
Germany though.

------
advaita
Quick question for anyone who understands legal side of this, would Smart TV/
Smart TV manufacturers fall under CCPA when it goes into effect?

~~~
kitotik
IANAL, but if the data is being shared with “3rd parties” and/or “service
providers” they definitely would. Sadly, I doubt it will actually be enforced
by the California AG anytime soon.

------
aczerepinski
Is there any good 4k tv on the market with zero smart features? I would love
to buy a high quality display that can't connect to the internet.

~~~
bitwize
Most Sceptre TVs come with no smart features. Price is good, too.

~~~
dmm
Be careful most of the Sceptre tvs are RGBW panels so they aren't true 4k.

------
opan
Can anyone recommend brands or models for a fun and hackable TV? Something to
let me run my own software on it and remove any ads or unwanted features from
menus (I don't want any big Netflix or Hulu buttons). Maybe something running
Android. Preferably something with an existing community around it, like an
equivalent to OpenWRT or LineageOS for TVs.

------
jim-greer
Sadly, few people are likely to pay more for a TV that doesn’t track them.
There’s research on this.

[https://www.datainnovation.org/2019/01/national-survey-
finds...](https://www.datainnovation.org/2019/01/national-survey-finds-few-
americans-willing-to-pay-for-privacy/)

------
tyingq
This seems fairly easy to me. Just don't configure the WiFi. Add a TV box
(FireTV, Apple TV, whatever) that you trust.

~~~
Buttons840
That FireTV you have plugged in gives the TV an Ethernet connection. So it's
more like turn off the WiFi and plug in Ethernet.

~~~
tyingq
Not sure I understand. How does the TV get that through an HDMI cable?

~~~
Buttons840
HDMI cables can carry Ethernet, not just video.

~~~
somehnguy
You've repeated this like 9 times in this post but I have yet to see any proof
of any devices actually implementing it.

------
aerique
Why not use a computer display as a dumb TV?

~~~
freehunter
Computer displays don’t often have speakers built into them or robust support
for multiple (2+) HDMI inputs or coax inputs for cable/antenna or RGA inputs.
All things people typically expect in a TV.

------
throwanem
For now, at least, you can turn off ACR in a Roku TV's settings (tested on a
43" TCL Series 5).

------
6gvONxR4sf7o
The sooner GDPR and CCPA and others outlaw practices like this, the better. I
use my TV as a big monitor, and if I happen to have accidentally agreed to
something whose fine print allows this, it could have sent some really
sensitive information.

Could you imagine if your smartphone screen or your computer monitor did this?
I think samsung makes the iphone screens. What if they randomly sent
screenshots with personal identifiers back to samsung? Who in their company
possibly would possibly think this is okay?

------
vasundhar
every 2 seconds all devices speak to google, if you have one amazon echo, one
fire tv, google chrome cast , roku then your entire life of every moment is in
google hands.

~~~
34679
Don't forget cell phones and Fitbits.

------
a_imho
How is this different from phones or other smart devices?

~~~
arminiusreturns
Two wrongs don't make a right. We should be fighting against the surveillance
of those systems also.

------
t34543
Commercial display panels are “dumb” and a good alternative to the consumer
junk that’s forced down our throats.

------
roel_v
So I have a samsung tv, and I like the apps - I use the youtube one every day,
and several others several times a week. How do I leverage the gdpr to find
out who knows what about me?

~~~
a_imho
You probably need to contact the DPO of each company starting with Samsung
and/or consult their dedicated GDPR resources. Unfortunately GDPR is not
really enforced thus fails to live up to its promise. In theory you should
have nothing to worry about unless you opted in to their data collecting
shenanigans.

Even if you are prepared to exercise your rights under GDPR in my experience
the usual modus operandi is asking for _more_ data via various registration
forms and accounts or sending copies of personal IDs. Then if you manage to
hand in a Data Request or Deletion Request there is no way to find out whether
they really complied or not, making it pointless.

------
homerhomer
My Roku TV is the most blocked computer on my network with the pi-hole.

------
hypewatch
And it’s really hard to buy a good quality new TV that’s not smart

------
goombastic
You don't get non-smart/dumb TVs that easily anymore.

------
vasundhar
Every 2 seconds all devices speak to google, if you have one amazon echo, one
fire tv, google chrome cast , roku then your entire life of every moment is in
google hands.

------
stjohnswarts
My 11 year old philips is still fine.

------
tripzilch
If you have one of these types of TVs, may I suggest trying to make a simple
YouTube video showing clearly how to navigate the menus to disable these
tracking features?

That way, people with less technical know-how (like, say, my parents) can
follow the instructions and get more privacy.

At least, I assume they can be disabled? I don't think it would fly with the
GDPR otherwise?

------
ga-vu
paywall... ugh

~~~
haspoken
[http://archive.is/8Cm3Q](http://archive.is/8Cm3Q)

------
scarejunba
It's why the device can be so cheap. Pity they don't offer two variants
though. I always did like the way Amazon let you opt in to ads for a cheaper
Kindle price.

In a past life, I actually helped bridge ad attribution for a bunch of these.
Funny.

