How to Stop Your Smart TV from Spying on You
Stopping the smart TV from being used against you
Smart TVs are cheap, but they come with hidden costs: manufacturers like LG use the EDID protocol to push unwanted software onto your computer when you connect via HDMI. This article explains how this attack works, why Microsoft lets it happen, and offers practical defenses, including EDID blockers and open-source alternatives.
To these companies, you technically never really owned the device, but instead purchased permission from these companies to have it exist in your household.
- fckgw
It's shocking how many comments here didn't bother to read the article. At all.
They're not talking about putting the TV online. The TV is completely offline.
They're talking about plugging the TV into a PC or laptop via HDMI or Displayport (like if you're running an HTPC), which then triggers a companion app update on the PC via Windows Update. This was a news item a few weeks ago with their monitors. They then also discuss a hardware blocker for HDMI or DP to prevent this.
Again, this has nothing to do about the TV's smart apps.
- mtlynch
I couldn't understand what this article was saying.
There's nothing nefarious about EDIDs. EDIDs are just a way of the monitor to announce its capabilities to the device so that the device and the display can agree on things like resolution, refresh rate, etc. EDIDs are just blobs of data without capability to execute logic, as far as I'm aware.
It sounds like the author is claiming that Windows does some sort of driver update in response to EDID announcements, but OP doesn't explain it at all. If that's true, that would entirely be on the Windows end not on the EDID's end. It sounds like Windows is recognizing LG as the manufacturer declared in the EDID and then downloading a driver for LG. I don't think there's any way for the EDID to declare to the OS that it wants to perform a driver update.
- derf_
Warren Buffett has often said, "In looking for people to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. And if you don't have the first, the other two will kill you."
The exact same logic applies to devices you buy. These companies have shown they do not have any integrity. So why would you want buy something from them that is "smart" and never sleeps?
- roscas
Wise words "Never give ANY smart device internet.".
That is just stupid to give internet access to a "smart" tv or a "smart" phone. You have zero control over it.
- pico303
The solution for smart TVs is to not connect it to the Internet and attach an Apple TV. Sure they’ve gotten expensive, but how much is your privacy worth?
- Arubis
A periodic reminder that you can buy a TV that's not smart. It won't be the fancy Samsung wall-art one and it won't be the absolute shiniest display tech out there, but it will be good enough, it'll be dirt cheap, and it won't have a network port or an 802.11 radio.
[Sceptre](https://www.sceptre.com/TV/4K-UHD-TV-category1category73.htm...)'s 4K series is sold at Wal-Mart, often for under half the web-listed prices. I’ve bought a few at the 42” scale for like $180 shipped. They’re fine and they’re incapable of all the spyware bullshit.
- tehnoslow
That's some crazy stuff. I knew LG and others liked to push ads on their smart TVs, but I didn't realize it was this bad...
- fg137
> Amid the overall electronics boom thanks to A.I.
What is it talking about? What boom?