from the watching-big-brother-watching-you dept.
Have a Vizio smart TV? You'll probably want to read this article over at net-security.org then:
Owners of Smart TVs manufactured by California-based consumer electronics company Vizio should be aware that their viewing habits are being tracked and that information sold to third parties ("partners").
And, what's more, with a recent change of the company's privacy policy, the company has started providing this data to companies that "may combine this information with other information about devices associated with that IP address."
"Beginning October 31, 2015, VIZIO will use Viewing Data together with your IP address and other Non-Personal Information in order to inform third party selection and delivery of targeted and re-targeted advertisements. These advertisements may be delivered to smartphones, tablets, PCs or other internet-connected devices that share an IP address or other identifier with your Smart TV," the privacy policy says.
Vizio's competitors Samsung and LG Electronics can also track users' viewing habits via their smart TV offerings, ProPublica's Julia Angwin pointed out, but the feature has to be explicitly turned on by the users.
Yep, glad I do all my TV watching on a computer monitor.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 10 2015, @11:57PM
Smart TV - $500.
Same size/quality monitor - $3000
How much is your privacy worth to you or to them? Stupid fucking home entertainment industry!
(Score: 2) by novak on Wednesday November 11 2015, @12:43AM
So that tells you that they expect to steal and resell $2500 worth of personal data from you over the life of the device.
novak
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 11 2015, @12:46AM
I've never used a smart television. Are they unusable without a connection to the Internet? Without connecting to the Internet, could one be substituted for a monitor without much inconvenience?
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 11 2015, @01:09AM
At least for me, the 5 smart TVs I have used work just fine with no internet. One of them complained incessantly that it it wasn't connected to the wifi; the rest didn't seem to care.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 10 2015, @11:59PM
Smart TV's are spying on people, so you're glad you do your TV watching on a computer monitor.
Yes that makes sense. Everyone knows TV's are smarter than computers.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday November 11 2015, @12:24AM
The computer is configurable.
Of course, my DD-WRT router is also configurable. I block the tracking sites at the router, and all devices using my gateway are protected from them. TV, smart phone, laptop, tablet, desktop, even the kitchen toaster.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday November 11 2015, @12:33AM
Wait, they can embed tracking into mp4s now? Damn you, kat.cr!
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 11 2015, @12:42AM
> Wait, they can embed tracking into mp4s now? Damn you, kat.cr!
Ever use one of those apps to identify a song [google.com] just by letting it listen to a little bit of while its playing?
That tech can be embedded in the audio path of TVs, receivers, etc. If anything in the output chain is online it is a point where media recognition software can figure out what you are watching and listening too. Never mind all the other stuff in the room with a microphone or camera that might be listening in too.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Thursday November 12 2015, @09:13PM
...or any other running process can probably figure it out just from `ps -ef`
...or sniffing network traffic when your media player goes to look up media information online
(Score: 3, Insightful) by frojack on Wednesday November 11 2015, @12:55AM
Of course, my DD-WRT router is also configurable. I block the tracking sites at the router, and all devices using my gateway are protected from them.
Really? You have that list of IPs do you? Because its a pretty frickin huge list.
Block every external address and your smart tv suddenly won't stream. (So who needs the smart TV?).
I think you underestimate the problems involved in egress filtering.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday November 11 2015, @01:53AM
One source for tracking sites - http://pgl.yoyo.org/as/ [yoyo.org]
I hate to invoke the hosts spammer, but the various hosts files available on the internet cover tracking sites pretty well. As I suggested, using the router to block all that crap is far more effective than trying to set each device you own to block the stuff. You need not use an actual HOSTS file, either - Toastman, among others, has created a script to check out whichever HOSTS file you might wish to use, then update your IPtables to block them.
TBH, I haven't researched what sites might need to be blocked for smart TV's, but the information is probably readily available. If not, Wireshark can surely identify the sites that your TV is connecting to.
You don't need to know all smart TV tracking sites, after all. You only need to know which sites YOUR TV is using.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anal Pumpernickel on Wednesday November 11 2015, @03:51AM
Better yet: Don't give these scumbag companies your money at all; simply never buy their defective, abusive televisions.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday November 11 2015, @04:00AM
Massive hosts files are extremely inefficient. It slows ALL DNS requests down.
And not all that effective when the software is programmed (like Windows 10) to use hard coded IP addresses with several dozen backup addresses coded in. No DNS hits = useless hosts file.
Also, as you well know:
Hosts files play no part in iptables.
Hosts simply map names to ip addresses.
IPtables can block subnets and individual IPs.
You need, as you mentioned, something to surf you monster hosts file, look up each, an load those all into iptables.
And you really can't run that in a standard router, so you have to install your own router package.
But a huge list of IP addresses in iptables isn't very efficient either, and you find that the puny processor in the router gets bogged down, and is slow.
Jeeze, that's a long way to go to keep your TV from feeding crap back to the manufacturer. Unplug the cat 5 from the TV. Problem solved.
Yes, if you are going to go this route, you definitely want it in your router, rather than each device.
But I maintain the cure is worse than the disease.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 11 2015, @10:15AM
Massive hosts files are extremely inefficient. It slows ALL DNS requests down.
That depends on the system and how it's implemented.
(Score: 2) by Max Hyre on Wednesday November 11 2015, @12:09AM
(Score: 3, Informative) by frojack on Wednesday November 11 2015, @12:24AM
If you accidental get stuck with one of these TVs, and can't take it back to the store, just don't cable it up to your network, or give it your wifi password.
You can still stream to it from Netflix or Hulu or what ever, via a Chromecast or a Firestick, or whatever Apple is selling now days.
Of course all of those streaming options have tracking built in. But at least it is with a company you voluntarily signed up with rather than some TV manufacturer who just foists it on you.
This is the down side of cord cutting. If you stream you will be tracked. If you download from warez site or via bit-torrent you MIGHT not get tracked.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 11 2015, @12:35AM
> If you download from warez site or via bit-torrent you MIGHT not get tracked.
A VPN is less than $40/yr. That's a good trade-off for all the pirated tv you can download with only a 0.0001% chance of being tracked, at least until the MAFIAA fully co-opts the NSA.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday November 11 2015, @03:01AM
VPNs aren't that secret. Their only advantage is your other endpoint can be in a jurisdiction that has some protections, and is out of reach of big media. But using any VPN that terminates in the US seems risky to me, when people can serve warrants to obtain logs.
VPNs are obviously able to track which connections are going to which users. And the level of detail available for that is easily enough to track large downloads to specific users. All it takes is ONE law to be passed (like in Australia and the UK) requiring VPN providers to keep deep laws.
Its probably not precise enough to to track BotTorrents. (The mere act of trying to record all those connections for little packets from dozens of torrent servers would produce too much data).
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 11 2015, @03:59AM
> All it takes is ONE law to be passed (like in Australia and the UK) requiring VPN providers to keep deep laws.
Hasn't happened yet and as long as you aren't pirating pre-release $200M films, you don't have to worry about them coming after you with a warrant.
> Its probably not precise enough to to track BotTorrents. (The mere act of trying to record all those connections for little packets from dozens of torrent servers would produce too much data).
Sounds like you don't know how bittorrent works. But that's never stopped you from posting before. Torrent "servers" really known as trackers will gladly tell anyone who asks who they are talking to. That is exactly how the MAFIAA's minions have been going after torrent users for a decade now.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 11 2015, @09:31AM
Hasn't happened yet and as long as you aren't pirating pre-release $200M films, you don't have to worry about them coming after you with a warrant.
You seem to be opposed to draconian copyright laws, so I am not sure why you would use corporate propaganda terms. [gnu.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 11 2015, @05:44AM
Hook it up on rare occasions so that you can check for software updates. Most are probably the code for things you don't want anyway, but one or two might just might be for code you do need.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 11 2015, @09:50PM
If it's not connected to a network, it's unlikely to get hacked. That is, unless the hacker is inside the building!
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 11 2015, @01:10AM
It's hard to believe how much businesses (people) will fuck things up and ruin our shit for what? To increase the chance we'll click on their adverts? They're not even doing it for the children or for Freedom(TM) like the government is.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 11 2015, @11:21AM
Business has a long and distinguished history of killing golden geese and running things into the ground. I think the MBA shit-meisters refer to this as a "business life cycle".
(Score: 2) by meisterister on Wednesday November 11 2015, @01:29AM
...are very, very, very, very cheap now.
It's not like it's particularly difficult to get a TV without any of the spying BS. In some places, you can even get such televisions for free/borderline free.
Just sayin'.
(May or may not have been) Posted from my K6-2, Athlon XP, or Pentium I/II/III.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 11 2015, @06:12AM
I just need a nice big flat screen with a decent selection of inputs. Can I please have that?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 11 2015, @11:17AM
It's called a "monitor".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 11 2015, @12:54PM
...and at a reasonable price, with RCA inputs because some of us still have good equipment that doesn't do HDMIxyz... now get off my digital lawn! :-)
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday November 11 2015, @01:05PM
Isn't that what a smart TV is?
My MiL bought a smart TV about 2 or 3 years ago, comically she doesn't even have internet, or even a "deal" with a neighbor, but it was the usual "Oh I like the color of the bezel vs my interior decorating so I'll buy that one" and whatever that one has is what she got. Because smartness or dumbness of the TV wasn't an issue, it was the built in stand and bezel that sold it. This is how the general public buys TVs BTW.
Anyway its got a field of HDMI inputs and RCA jacks just like a real (non-smart) TV.
Maybe new smart TVs try to silo themselves by not providing any external connections, only their shitty service. You'd think people would squack about not being able to connect to the cable box or the xbox or whatever, though.
As a comical side issue, smart TVs have incredibly slow and hard to use UIs, so just using her TV is a PITA, and even my dumb TV has such as slow and painful UI that I leave it on HDMI1 input and have an external mechanical switchbox because I can switch from my mythtv box to the kids wii in a fraction of a second vs the software switched HDMI inputs on the TV which even on my dumb TV take like 15 seconds to switch.
(Score: 3, Funny) by aristarchus on Wednesday November 11 2015, @07:28AM
I am trying to restrain myself.
The meme is old.
A new twist is hardly worth a post.
It will make people groan!
And Winston, hiding around the corner, scribbling in his journal with a fountain pen, would not approve.
Maybe that is why---it has to be said!
God forgive me:
In Vizio America, the TV watches you!
[It is done. Pax vobiscum.]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Bot on Wednesday November 11 2015, @10:36AM
...when you take into account that "vizio" is Italian for "defect" (from the same latin term, "vitium", you get "vice").
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday November 11 2015, @05:13PM
Don't Buy A "Smart" Television. The technology in your "Smart TV" will be outdated, before your Television is no longer of use. I have a 32" Sceptre I bought about 10 years ago. Other than the 1 stuck pixel in the center of the screen that it's had since I bought it, it functions perfectly. Sad thing is I spent $600 on that and a few years later spent $600 on a 32" Sony.Then the prices of TVs dropped dramatically, but I really don't need another TV right now. Neither of them are "Smart TVs" and I am glad for that.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"