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I didn't realize my LG TV was spying on me until I turned off this setting
(www.pocket-lint.com)
this post was submitted on 26 Dec 2025
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Privacy
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A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
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I don't get why people reflexively suggest streaming boxes. A standalone Roku, Onn or FireTV is gonna spy on you just as much as any of these things. Apple TV is probably the best of a bad bunch (esp. since Nvidia enshittified the Shield TV). There's options like running the Shield with an alternate launcher or putting a ROM on the Fire stick or running A Linux STB but none of those are particularly accessible to the non-tech set.
I guess I wasn’t meaning to recommend one over the other, I was curious what the value proposition of connecting your tv to the internet is. (The tv I have is at least ten years old and is incredibly sluggish even changing channels - I can’t imagine using the built in apps is any better. Same with our ancient Blu-ray player, just awful to use.) Or if there is no value prop and you’re forced (or nagged) to do so in order to use your tv.
I assume that any sort of streaming is offering up a surveillance buffet. I just want to limit the data as best I can.
Thank you. "I refuse to send my data to my tv company! Here, Apple, you take it instead."
The usability of "smart" TVs is garbage. They arne't very powerful computers so if you are going to sacrifice privacy by using streaming, you should do it with a better streaming device. There is no reason a TV needs to connect to the internet. There is nothing that needs to be updated.
hypothetically the box doesn't see everything else you do with the TV, but that's a minimal reduction in footprint.