alt Hacker NewsI asked every TV manufacturer 17 questions about how they spy on you
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Lying sacks of shit
Remember, "no answer" is still a data point.
Interesting that in the beginning it says 'We know that many TVs use automatic content recognition (ACR)' but according to answers none of those manufacturers do.
So which TVs do the ACRs, and why Verge did not send those questions to them? Hisense?
Did any of them confirm the myth that the TV attempts to auto connect to any public wifi it can find or comes with a built in 5G modem?
I think it is better to use AI to root the devices, get them to run linux and run an open source media app. The TV manufacturer's default OS is low value.
I was impressed LG answered every question and quite directly, assuming they’re telling the truth.
I was quite disappointed in Apple for dodging so many of them and giving non-answers. They need to tone down the corporate speak and take a lesson from LG.
When asked if a user can erase everything the correct answer is not a thesis on privacy, it’s saying “Choosing Erase all settings and data will remove everything on the device back to factory fresh state”. They already have the perfect answer.
Apple has good answers for many of the questions they skipped too. But they look bad by not even trying to answer.
The problem is the regulators in the US are in bed with the companies so they can say whatever and do the complete opposite and then get fined a trivial amount of money and just keep doing it
I was disappointed that the article described Apple's answers to some questions as not direct. They should have published the indirect answer. Let the reader judge the answers.
Almost all these TVs run Android. So where’s the GrapheneOS for TVs?
This is part of the plot of 1984, where people willing put these things in their homes.
Apple did/does not want to take the Sony/Samsung product diversification path, but it is a shame for them not to branch out more. An actual Apple branded TV under Tim Cook probably would have honestly respected our privacy. I blocked my LG TV's MAC address from accessing our wifi.
I want to know what Sony said. Because apparently they responded to the request, but answered 0/17 questions
It sounds like the best option is to get a TV, never connect it to the Internet, and use a separate Roku device.
Or go a step further and build your own Linux HTPC.
Of course if you are already sharing everything about yourself with Google/Amazon/OpenAI/Anthropic then who cares?
TV manufacturers: "in all the obvious ways. you wouldn't be surprised how boring people are, especially those who get it and set others up. I mean we even called it set top box back in the day, maybe we should have called it not worth the trouble box. see what I mean. that's how inspiring you are. thanks for the interview. maybe try oxygen, retard."
Well well well, we know now which cat has had their face in the cream (aka who is clearly visible most guilty).. that would be Hisense, who got caught today and had nothing to say.
For all the company’s who had reponses along the lines of “we don’t do thing X that some others are doing”.. full bets it’s Hisense doing each of these things.
> I put together 17 yes-or-no questions...
And they still managed to answer them in multiple sentences, and sometimes multiple paragraphs.
Dell isn't in the list, so I guess we keep pretending that monitors and TVs are somehow different.
> looks at TV, forgetting its brand.
Toshiba.
Hmm. Not in this list.
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> I asked every TV manufacturer 17 questions about how they spy on you
OK, but why? Just so you can write an article? All those answers are useless. Even if they were true, a company's policy can change over night. It even says so in the legalese.
I’m sure this would be a lot more compelling if the site wasn’t unusable.
The setting has the obvious name of "Live Plus".