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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsLG TV phones home with your viewing habits
Doctor Beet was alarmed to notice that his LG TV was showing him ads on its home screen; he investigated and discovered a hidden, undocumented setting to switch off collection of his viewing habits. Still suspicious, he monitored the packets flowing from his TV's network interface and discovered that even with the "data-collection off" setting engaged, the TV still phoned home with the name of every program it showed, as well as the filenames of every video he loaded over its USB interface. All of this data was sent in the clear to LG's servers."
When he contacted LG, they told him that "unfortunately" he had consented to this by clicking through the EULA, and advised him that it was something he had to take up with the store where he bought the set, because they should have told him about the spying before selling it to him. "
http://boingboing.net/2013/11/19/lg-tv-phones-home-with-your-vi.html
CFLDem
(2,083 posts)What's that?
NYC_SKP
(68,644 posts)Nobody reads the fine print...
unblock
(52,317 posts)hobbit709
(41,694 posts)DJ13
(23,671 posts)You can do that with a Blu Ray player, or a Roku.
eggplant
(3,913 posts)seveneyes
(4,631 posts)eggplant
(3,913 posts)If your TV can phone home, then so can whatever streaming device you are using. If you can block one, you can block the other. I still wouldn't buy a TV that I *know* does this crap, but my point stands -- there is nothing preventing Roku (or any other streamer) from doing exactly the same thing.
NuclearDem
(16,184 posts)I've got a PS3 for each of the two TVs.
DJ13
(23,671 posts)Microsoft originally conceived the new XBox One to need a constant internet connection to work.
The included Kinect camera was supposed to be a major revenue stream for them.
http://www.newstatesman.com/future-proof/2013/11/xbox-ones-always-camera-shows-subtle-ways-we-accept-being-watched
I couldn't care less if lg knows what I watch....they don't cause I cut the cable long ago and my smart TV is just a huge monitor for my computer. If I did though I really just wouldn't care a bit.
What exactly do you envision happening to you with that info out there in the corporate worlds hands?
Or are you just afraid to be afraid?
AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)Store should have told him? Why is it doing it at all? Is the TV cheaper because it's subsidized by the ads?