Smart TVs are everywhere! But who is the master?
Amid the overall electronics boom thanks to A.I., one piece of electronics is almost unchanged financially. That is the digital display or flat-panel monitor. With good reason! The entire entertainment and streaming industry wants one of these device
Keep it offline? Wow, that was easy.
just because it isnt conneted to your network dosent mean it isnt sending data over side channels it could:
use alternative networks provided by other devices (ring cams, amazon echo etc)
decentral networks like apple or google tracking networks via phones
it could strait out have a sim card with modem
sending ultrasonic tones recived by ad tracking networks on smartphones
high speed IR flickers that could be recived by smartphones distance sensor
samsung service personal in the building across the street with a big telescope
I’d genuinely love to see real evidence of any of these things being used in a wide range of models.
These are mostly expensive options (a SIM card for every TV? really?) and require maintenance and finesse, and aren’t needed for the majority of units shipped. Occam’s razor would suggest they’re happy enough with anyone stupid enough to connect the TV that all this work for 5-10% of their market isn’t worth the additional marginal cost to each unit.
There are models that will try out unencrypted wifi AP just to phone home. No extra equipment needed and unfortunately the chances of finding an open AP are pretty good in the middle of the city.
Sure, but that’s just a software choice. A shitty, sneaky software choice, but still. That’s not adding in a SIM card, data subscription, radio, etc.