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.
Do not connect your Smart TVs to network people, seriously. Just a bad idea. Use a media center PC or some other device that allows you to stream content, and make sure the TV itself is just a big monitor, nothing more.
I hear but have not verified that they will connect to an open network without letting you know.
I have definitely had to forget networks, then have them connect to that network weeks later at random, then having to forget the network again. Don’t know how that’s legal.
Forgetting a network is only when your wifi is password protected. If the TV can find an open wifi access point, it could just automatically connect to the internet. “Forgetting” a network doesn’t help here…! Since there is nothing to forget (there are wifi points without password). But it should be forbidden IMO to automatically connect to these kind of access points. But even your mobile phone might do the same thing.
Yep, it was my personal, password-protected network. Either someone reconnected it (unlikely, I live with my gf who doesn’t use the TV) or it just cached the password until it decided to spy on my again 🙃
At least you should be able to block its mac address
This!
But it doesn’t eliminate the problem, it merely passes it to the media center PC etc
Smart TVs are designed to surveil you, a media center PC can be used however you want. Flash Linux and run Jellyfin and torrent everything through a VPN, then nothing can track you.
Better yet, buy a big monitor.
If there were big monitors with the same color quality and in the same price range I’d do it. But usually large monitors are for signage.
At least that’s what I’ve found.
Where do I get a 65" monitor?
You want a “commercial display”. They are dumb TVs for signage and whatnot. You won’t be getting the cutting edge display technology, but you still get a great display and no smart functions.
…and presumably you pay through the nose for it?
Depends, but you can get a 4k 55" Samsung for under $600.
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Bro, it’s Amazon