A new Gamers Nexus investigation found a retail LG TV actively scanning the local network for phones, laptops, smartwatches and other connected devices, while also capturing microphone audio when the screen appeared to be in standby. The investigation found voice data being stored locally even after the TV was disconnected from the network, with the queued data uploaded once connectivity returned. Researchers also uncovered webOS vulnerabilities that could potentially turn the television into a remotely controlled surveillance device. The really unsettling part isn’t just the advertising angle. It’s the fact that a consumer television can sit inside your trusted network, enumerate other devices, access a microphone, store collected data locally and communicate with external infrastructure. Put that same device in a corporate office, hospital, hotel or conference room and the security implications become considerably more serious. I went through the investigation in detail, including the network scanning, microphone behavior, ACR, webOS attack surface, offline data collection and practical mitigations
For the past ten years I’ve been routinely telling people not to let their TVs have access to any networks because they can not be trusted. This morning I find myself insufficiently optimistic to believe that any great number of them are going to start taking that advice now just because there’s suddenly a boatload of new evidence backing it up.
Unfortunately these days TVs are stubborn. They refuse to work without an account or so in many cases. Best is to put them on a different VLAN and allowing the bare minimum
Idk both of mine are offline only. Never connected to my internet.
I really wish we could go back to them just being panels, a few hookups and that’s it. No built in Netflix or whatever other garbage
They won’t cuz customers are accustomed these days with all the bells and whistles that are bundled with modern TVs. Also, investors want “innovation”. This is kinda same as AIs getting integrated into toasters, washing machines etc. Mainstrram consumers don’t care about privacy. Heck most consumers use their default shitty ISP provided router and don’t even change the default username and password. This is thr harsh truth. Even now, most consumers choose convenience over privacy
I don’t want a dumb TV, and I don’t want to choose between “convenience and privacy” - I want a TV with a slot for basically a RasPi cartridge I can slot in that runs my own goddamn OS as the smart TV. This isn’t rocket science. This shouldn’t require compromise. Imagine if in 1995 every desktop PC had Windows 95 hardwired into the motherboard as the only OS that could boot; it’s deranged.
The real problem is that there’s no profit in any of the innovation we actually want, and that’s capitalism’s fault for being unable to deliver.
Yeah but even the mainstream experience isn’t that great? They take forever to boot up, are slow, insecure, stop being updated etc.
I’m sure it won’t get better, it never does it seems, still, it would be nice.
I guess we have to use a computer monitor.
Then they’re about to get returned to the store as defective, and I’ll go buy a different TV.
That’s called “a bad purchase” or “a return,” you can’t just bring active spyware into your home
consumer power yey! to bad its easier just to cave in for most especially with how big and bulky modern tvs are. Not that i have one
Yep. If a new TV I buy doesn’t work without an account, I’m returning it to the store because it ‘doesn’t work’. No other possibility.
You know what’s really fun? All of these “features” affect the Consumer Price Index math so it makes your TV look even more valuable than it actually is, causing the government’s official inflation rate to be a little lower than what we actually feel. This is true of smartphones, computers, cars, etc…
The fact you can’t fix anything? Not included.