Your Smart TV is taking screenshots of your screen every 15 seconds (2024)

therobots927

I changed the WiFi password as never told my Samsung the new one. I expect this will work for a year or two until they figure out how to force their way onto the network.

its-summertime

https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.06203 the study Instructions given from the twitter thread but are probably slop: Samsung: Menu → Settings → All Settings → General & Privacy → Terms & Privacy → Turn off "Viewing Information Services" LG: Settings → General → System → Additional Settings → Turn off "Live Plus" Settings → Support → Privacy & Terms → User Agreements → Turn off "Viewing Information" Roku TVs (TCL, Hisense, Philips, Insignia, Onn, Sharp, and others): Settings → Privacy → Smart TV Experience → Turn off "Use Info from TV Inputs" Settings → Privacy → Advertising → Turn off "Personalize Ads" Sony: Settings → All Settings → Turn off "Samba Interactive TV" Vizio: Settings → All Settings → Admin & Privacy → Turn off "Viewing Data" Amazon: Settings → Preferences → Privacy Settings → Turn off "Device Usage Data", "Collect App and Over-the-Air Usage", "Interest-Based Ads"

rationalist

I took out the Wi-Fi module before I ever powered up the TV. I don't want to have to trust that a guest won't try to connect to their own hotspot to watch their Netflix on my TV.

AirMax98

Dumb devices have gotta be a billion dollar market at this point.

angry_octet

I'm curious to know whether my Google TV is surveilling my use of Netflix and other apps. If I watch something via XBMC streaming does it sample it? It would be a shame if I had to have my own HDMI generator go back to switching inputs.

peterlk

https://xcancel.com/heynavtoor/status/2044433988312560051

kstrauser

Maybe, but since I'll never connect that sucker to a network, it'll just have to sit and brood on them.

landgenoot

What is the framework of the TV's these days? I still have a 2011 high end Samsung that has no Wifi, but this thing is not going to last forever.

m463

lots of hacker news folks provide information: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46294456

hyruo

Since TV screenshots are used for advertising purposes, I'd like to know if the same thing happens on mobile phones.

ChrisArchitect

(2024) sources instead of twitter threads: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2024/nov/smart-tv-tracking-raises... https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.06203

mannyv

Just connect your TV to WiFi then block it at your router/wifi AP. Though at some point they'll just start using random MAC addresses Then you have to ensure that you block all external access for stuff that didn't get an IP from your DHCP server. Which probably won't work with IPv6 because it could just assign itself an IP and go. How would you block a random device on IPv6 that's generating its own IP?