I heard rumor (that sounded believable enough to me) that the content-detection part of "smart TVs" (i.e. they sample pixels in each frame to figure out what show you're watching) is valuable enough that the software will try any unsecured wifi network in the area to phone home. On hearing that, I immediately password-protected my guest network that had previously been open (I live in the boonies),

Internet of "Things" indeed. John Carpenter, eat your heart out.

None of my TVs are connected to the Wifi... or at least that's how it used to be.

One of my TVs, a Samsung, will pop up a huge window complaining it doesn't have internet access, and it will keep it on screen until it gets internet access, which happens fairly quickly after my wife starts complaining. Ironically the thing it complains about is wanting to update it's antivirus, which is only needed because it is connected to the internet.

I will vote (and have) with my vallet next time, and that includes never buying Samsung again. I will also "try it out" in the shop before buying another brand.

Some TVs will actively try and connect to any open wifi they can see without your consent or intervention. And wait until 5G is cheap enough so that any device can embed an always on cellular connection.

Imagine a compromised TV acting as a bot: perhaps committing wire fraud over an open WiFi hotspot.

Imagine the FBI knocking on your door.

Brave new world.

> Just don't connect it to WiFi. Problem solved.

This may work until 5g (or a successor) rolls around and becomes cheap enough for iot devices to just embed a cell, so as to provide "a seamless experience" and to jam ads down our throats come hell or high water.

At that point there won’t be a TV in our home. I simply won’t tolerate it on principle.

A bit of an aside but this T-Mobile thing too is really pissing me off. I’m fine with “if you don’t pay, you have to view ads”, but if I’m paying and still getting ads/tracking - not happy.

We need legislation and different technology options to capture this.

On the TV front - an enterprising young startup could make really nice looking TVs with guaranteed no ads and probably sell for at least double the price.

Maybe I'll look into "presentation displays" for my next "tv". I use an appletv and external audio anyway -- the "tv" is just for display only.

That’s what I do. Apple TV + Sony Bravia TV that has never been connected to the Internet, and external speakers. I was looking at others like Samsung but they came with this external piece for the TV (like a receiver type thing?) and I’m just like - I want this thing to just display video and output audio, not do all this other stuff.

Perhaps we’ll figure out how to piggyback off that connection to get free internet.

I recently bought a roku tv and this wasn’t an option, I had to setup an account just to activate it before I could use it.