It's so f'ing simple. JUST DON'T CONNECT YOUR TV TO YOUR WIFI. Get your streams from a separate device.
this post was submitted on 09 Sep 2026
889 points (98.9% liked)
Privacy
50834 readers
964 users here now
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.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
Some Rules
- Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
- Don't promote proprietary software
- Try to keep things on topic
- If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
- Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
- Be nice :)
Related communities
much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)
founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
tossed mine in the trash when i learned it wanted a bluetooth connection to the tv
What? Because I have to Open my control, I understand almost nothing about technology. Don't tell me it has a chip that controls ever
Anyone know when this started becoming ominous? I'm sure every TV in the sixties didn't have a microphone on their remotes; I am sure pretty much each one being released today has.
I have a 4k LG TV from around 2020 and it doesn't have a microphone.
Are you sure? We have two OLEDs (a CX from 2020 and a C1 from 2021), and both have these remotes with microphones:
It should, mine is 2017 and had options to listen for spoken commands
That seems unusual. I have a HD LG so ancient it has 3D and it has a microphone. It has always been disabled in software which isn't really disabled at all. A microphone free modern tv thing is a unicorn.
I have a cheapo Samsung 4K TV from 2019 and it does have one in the mic for sure, not sure about the TV itself. I don't let the TV connect to the internet though. I did initially because convenience, but now I have an Android TV thingy. Which itself is not perfect, but I don't live alone, having an HTPC with a mouse and keyboard would be a hassle. Aaaand upon writing this I realized HDMI-CEC is a thing and googled it and Plasma Bigscreen can support it and... shit I need a miniPC now
I bought a Steam Machine for this exact use case, and it's been pretty sweet. Especially since it can do 4k video decoding. I have it set up to start a Jellyfin server and client when I launch it through steam. Also VacuumTube has been a life saver.
If it works for you, that's great, for me it sits exactly where it makes zero sense to get. My PC is slightly more powerful so for gaming, it would be inferior. But it's too expensive just for a HTPC. Something either much more powerful (that could also run local LLMs), or significantly cheaper, would make more sense for me. I'm now eyeing used miniPCs, but I'll have to see if some of the cheap ones can handle 4k decoding.
The last TV I had was a 37 inch I sold in 2020. I stopped watching TV in 2003. I have been terminally online since late 2000 and 2001.
I've been terminally online for almost as long, but tbh the TV is good for background noise, or to watch something while you work, shitpost or play on your PC, situated so you can see the TV
Or just buy a cheap 3rd party off brand universal remote. Dont have to use the one that comes with the TV
FYI most modern TVs have a second microphone actually in the display that’s actually used for the nefarious tracking and listening for assistant wake words to save remote battery life
10 years ago OP would've been labeled a schizo, now we just accept there's microphones in everything
PRISM leak was 13 years ago if you want to feel old yet, but then that was just a revelation about how prevelant mass surveillance is, it was Vault 7 in 2017 that detailed how built-in microphones in Smart TVs are used for spying, so that part would indeed be less than 10 years ago
load more comments
(22 replies)
view more: next ›