alt Hacker NewsProblem is that they have wifi chips that will scan and connect to cell phones. The TV manufacturers have agreements with the cell providers for open wifi services on all their phones so you can't block it unless you live in the middle of nowhere and even that may change with LEO satellite service.
I opened up my LG TV because I saw it doing aggressive wifi scanning even when the wifi was "disabled" and physically removed the antenna wire and wrapped the whole guts in RF blocking foil.
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> The TV manufacturers have agreements with the cell providers for open wifi services on all their phones so you can't block
That's a strong statement, what's your source?
May I ask what model of TV and if it didn't have a e-key wifi module that could be removed rather than wrapped inside? Mine is older but the service manual seems to indicate there is just a regular module in there I could pop out.
I’m sorry what? There are phone network providers that pimp out your phone’s wifi and data connection without telling you?
I’m not sure I believe you? (Not that I can’t believe a company would do something dodgy behind your back, but I just don’t think our phones would go that far off piste - opening a wifi network has battery power implications that I think would have been discovered/widely known before)
Is there any source you can actually cite for the cell phone bit…?
I believe you on the aggressive WiFi scanning but I’d have to see concrete proof about the phone part to believe it. Draining users phone batteries via WiFi hotspot functionality that the phone doesn’t even show to the user would be a very big deal.
I imagine if they were going to strike a deal with the phone companies they’d just embed cell chips in the TVs and connect directly.