By Jeremy Hsu on September 24, 2024
Popular smart TV models made by Samsung and LG can take multiple snapshots of what you are watching every second – even when they are being used as external displays for your laptop or video game console.
Smart TV manufacturers use these frequent screenshots, as well as audio recordings, in their automatic content recognition systems, which track viewing habits in order to target people with specific advertising. But researchers showed this tracking by some of the world’s most popular smart TV brands – Samsung TVs can take screenshots every 500 milliseconds and LG TVs every 10 milliseconds – can occur when people least expect it.
“When a user connects their laptop via HDMI just to browse stuff on their laptop on a bigger screen by using the TV as a ‘dumb’ display, they are unsuspecting of their activity being screenshotted,” says Yash Vekaria at the University of California, Davis. Samsung and LG did not respond to a request for comment.
Vekaria and his colleagues connected smart TVs from Samsung and LG to their own computer server. Their server, which was equipped with software for analysing network traffic, acted as a middleman to see what visual snapshots or audio data the TVs were uploading.
They found the smart TVs did not appear to upload any screenshots or audio data when streaming from Netflix or other third-party apps, mirroring YouTube content streamed on a separate phone or laptop or when sitting idle. But the smart TVs did upload snapshots when showing broadcasts from the TV antenna or content from an HDMI-connected device.
The researchers also discovered country-specific differences when users streamed the free ad-supported TV channel provided by Samsung or LG platforms. Such user activities were uploaded when the TV was operating in the US but not in the UK.
By recording user activity even when it’s coming from connected laptops, smart TVs might capture sensitive data, says Vekaria. For example, it might record if people are browsing for baby products or other personal items.
Customers can opt out of such tracking for Samsung and LG TVs. But the process requires customers to either enable or disable between six and 11 different options in the TV settings.
“This is the sort of privacy-intrusive technology that should require people to opt into sharing their data with clear language explaining exactly what they’re agreeing to, not baked into initial setup agreements that people tend to speed through,” says Thorin Klosowski at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital privacy non-profit based in California.
Ig it’s time to buy a regular tv then
I got a nice LG C3 on an open box deal, I connected it to run updates and fiddle for a few, then deleted the apps and took it offline.
this is why you get a separate apple tv/android box and not connect your tv to the internet
Connect it to a Linux PC for optimal privacy.
Again, Samsung and LG is sniffing the HDMI port… So especially if you use another device like an Apple TV or Android or HTPC running Linux, only then Samsung & LG will record this data and sent back to HQ.
If you use a PC, there is no need to connect the TV to your WiFi, which means it won’t send any data.
Correct. Assuming your TV doesn’t connect to open wifi access points.
And assuming you never want to use any of the smart features or apps.
Like those things aren’t capable of the same shit?
anythings capable of it, but the companies behind the (premium) boxes have less of an incentive. While theyre all capable, its a matter if you have trust in them. At least for the Shield TV for example, go download a shield tv rom if you really don’t trust Nvidia. If you are paranoid that they all can do it, than any smart device can do it because its connected to the internet.
So what do we do when smart TVs force us to connect to the Internet, and refuse to work until we do?
This is exhausting. We’re speeding towards a horrible, privacy-less future.
That’s a easy solution, here are the steps:
Step 1: Do not purchase a smart TV
Step 2: Yay, you did it! You did all the steps. 🥳
That’s getting harder to find by the day
Have you bought a TV in the last 5 years?
No. Did you read step one?
I never own a smart tv, but can you flash custom firmwares into it?
Well there are no non smart TVs anymore as far as I can tell, except the “monitor” version of TVs for 30% more money and maybe some antique 32" TVs with resolution of 1366x768
The divide between the tech savvy and the tech illiterate grows deeper.
And wider?
As a tech savvy person, it’s already a gaping chasm. Making it wider and deeper isn’t a huge change.
Hahah my friends made fun of me for buying some cheap as fuck “smart” TV instead of an expensive LG one like them, my TV can barely run a web browser, no chance in hell that things spying on me.
Maybe it can barely run a web browser because it’s working so hard spying on you?
Exactly. Since this comment doesn’t make sense. It’s most likely not only Samsung and LG doing it
Fuck sake
The amount of effort i had to put into buying a dumb tv the last time it was new tv time is positively infuriating.
I couldn’t even find one last time
So I guess they learned nothing from the last class action lawsuit https://topclassactions.com/lawsuit-settlements/lawsuit-news/lg-samsung-sony-class-action-alleges-smart-tv-privacy-violations/. Also reminded me of this past gem from LG: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/11/lg-smart-tv-snooping-extends-to-home-networks-second-blogger-says/.
I’m happy to see this, my wife and I were about to buy a smart TV. Now I’ll just get the dumb variant.
Now I’ll just get the dumb variant.
These don’t really exist on a consumer level anymore. What you’re looking for is called a commercial display, which is what’s used in businesses and hospitals.
Luckily they exist in smaller sizes still. I’m just getting a small tv for occasional use.
No, they still exist.
I’d rather pay for pretty much all products up-front with money at purchase time rather than pay with my data.
Not gonna tell other people what to do, but for myself, whether it’s my car or television or search engine or whatever, I’d rather just pay the bill rather than having the manufacturer or service provider go data-mining my data to figure out how they can make money from it.
I think that YouTube is a great service. YouTube Premium, though, is ad-free. What I want isn’t no-ad stuff, but no-log policies. And there aren’t a lot of manufacturers selling privacy. And it’s hard to compare services and products based on that.
I’ll go one more step. I don’t want to go read through privacy policies and figure out what the latest clever loophole is. We had to deal with that kind of legal stuff back prior to standardization around a few open-source licenses, and it sucked.
And I don’t want to deal with privacy policies that change and maybe don’t do what I want.
What I want to do is look for a privacy certification, and let the certification agency deal with that.
yep, never allow them to connect to the internet
My pi-hole blocks SO MUCH traffic from my Rokus. Never buying another Roku again.
Buy a computer monitor, a projector or a commercial display instead, they tend to be dumb.
Alternatively, don’t connect your TV to the internet (bear in mind some are wireless). Unplug it from the wall when not in use.
As if Microsoft’s Recall wasn’t enough…
Samsung monitors now include all the smart TV crap and need a remote to set them up
Too much work. Mine away!
