There's a simple reason why your new smart TV was so affordable: It's collecting
88 replies, posted
https://nordic.businessinsider.com/smart-tv-data-collection-advertising-2019-1
Smart TVs can be sold at or near cost to consumers - which is
great for consumers - because Vizio is able to monetize those TVs
through data collection, advertising, and selling
direct-to-consumer entertainment (movies, etc.) - which is less
great for consumers.
Or, as Baxter put it: "It's not just about data collection. It's
about post-purchase monetization of the TV."
"You sell some movies, you sell some TV shows, you sell some ads,
you know. It's not really that different than The Verge website,"
he said.
It's those additional forms of revenue that helps make the large,
beautiful smart TVs from companies like Vizio and TCL so
affordable.
Without that revenue stream, Baxter said, consumers would be
paying more upfront cost. "We'd collect a little bit more margin
at retail to offset it."
I've seen a lot of TVs recently with ads in the menus (some new Samsung models for example), and even some with forced interstitial ads when you change AV input.
I really don't want anything to do with this garbage. Think I need to invest in a good TV now, whilst it's possible to buy non-"smart" TVs.
I hate ads being stuffed in everything. They can go to hell.
I suggest you guys check out pi hole, lets you block ads on every device in your whole network.
Pi-hole®
Or just don't connect the TV to the internet?
Explains how I got a relatively new 43" 4K tv for about half the cost of an Xbox One X. Unfortunately for them I didn't hook it up to the wifi so it has no way of talking out.
Find the dns they use and block it then
Then they don't work and at that point why not just not connect them?
Oh I'm sure they'll start adding 3G cellular connections to these things at some point to get around that. The cost of mobile data is trivial compared to the value of your advert views.
Ya, just never hook them up, dedicated hardware is almost always better than embedded solutions anyway since depending on what you use you can control everything.
If you still wanna have wireless functions for your TV, connect it but block it from making outward connections (that's what I did for our smart printer).
Also keep in mind HDMI/DP support supplying ethernet over that connection as well, something to look out for.
For the really paranoid, it could just fake another device with a changed mac address. Might also be worth considering a static mapping where unknown mac addresses just don't get IP's or can't talk to the outside.
So far manufacturers haven't stooped so low as to spoof other mac addresses if they detect they can't make connections or don't get IP's
but seeing how money corrupts everything in this "smart" internet-of-shit economy where appliances been spotted using or supplying their own DHCP/DNS I would argue it is a question of when, not if.
It is sad we have to treat smart devices as points of uncertainty and liability in our own networks because their manufactures compromise on principles of security and sovereignty for profits but this is just the way it is.
https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/238785/42faf087-db49-4c98-a7f8-09e1d1e6859e/image.png
Don't tell me they're not already planning this bullshit
Except this one is actually good for the consumer as it keeps the cost down as they don't need to waste money on licensing
Then why the goddamn fuck would you buy a smart TV?
You can still get dumb TVs.
Well... they're getting increasingly rare.
Unlikely scenario, they would have to jack up every single unit with modem chips and appropriate SIM's and the profit margins are too low for that kind of effort.
If it did ever come to that, shit I dunno, do research that you don't get of those in the first place or maybe cellular jammers(?),
though cellular jammers could be illegal depending on the jurisdiction.
There isn't an easy fix when they bring their own network, just hope for a setting to turn it off and that their TV respects that choice.
The only real deterrence I can think off is that hackers would and could steal those SIM's and do some shenanigans with it, so that it wouldn't make it worth the effort.
The PS4 picture is just a funny illustration, my point is that TV manufacturers will continue to put more bullshit into TVs as long as it's profitable, and that it's very easy to make your solution of
basically unusable. I would like to be optimistic and say consumer pushback will stop scummy tactics to keep TVs online, but average consumers let the market down every time.
If you don't want that kind of data-mining, buy a standalone device that's less shitty and hook it up to the TV. You paid less for the TV anyways so it'll be the same as if they weren't reducing the price
God fucking dammit, always online DRM for simple playback, what the fuck, this is what is wrong with this digital world.
Good thing BluRay drives and players are dead cheap. You could just make your own media centre if it comes down to it.
You shouldn't get smart TV's, that is the point.
Also what @Natrox said.
Just stay away from anything that has smart or IoT in its name. It just isn't worth the effort if you are concerned about your privacy and/or your network security.
"hardware costs less when it can continue to make money through digital sales and advetisements!"
so... video game console logic?
The PS4 thing is actually just a one-time activation AFAIK, not always-online.
Imagine a scenario like this though:
You buy a new TV, it needs to be connected to the internet for "activation"
At this point it downloads ads to display. While online it updates the ads and reports statistics on ads show, but you always get some ads. Just potentially stale ones.
I think kindles worked this way at some point.
Or
Your TV needs connecting to the internet periodically for firmware updates.
If offline, this is based on a timer
Downloads new ads when online
Ships with some ads already in the box; these are from highest-paying advertisers.
Or
TV overlays ads on your AV channel every 10 minutes (so external boxes aren't safe)
Again, these ship in the box
Unless you go online and pay $5 a month for "premium TV" with no ads on external devices
Etc etc etc
These are just ones I came up with in 5 minutes, I think corporate scumbags could be a lot more creative now that most TVs have wifi-enabled computers with no user access to firmware.
It's not DRM.
Sony is just being cheapskates, so they figured that only a small percentage of users will play BDs, so instead of playing licensing fees after every console sold, they only pay after the number of users of who play Blu-Rays on their PS4. And this is how they track their number, it's a one-time only thing.
They're pretty much telescreens from 1984, anyway.
Hasn't it been known that they spy and listen to you and shit?
Most of these fail at certain key points.
If they cut features or restrict playback/display of content they effectively given their competition an advantage right out the gate.
Also it would probably be illegal to outright effectively bar customers from usage by not hooking them to the internet, willingly or unwillingly, their are still people without reliable internet.
Would also make a prime target of customer and media outrage so even less likely.
The lowest tier will also look to cut features, including ads, tracking and smart features to get their profit margins from sales alone.
The way I see it is handled like most likely by bundling it with other mechanics to make it a trade off between convenience and features against privacy.
Kind of the same way like Chrome tracking was handled in the very early versions, the outrage it spawned was too cumbersome so they canned it as everyone disabled it.
Later they just gave people the ability to sign up with their Google account for features such as sync, addons and so on.
And boom, you effectivly made the users sign up for tracking themselves by making it not an annoyance but a feature.
To be fair that's a smart way to reduce cost, if anything.
Wow a """smart""" device is collecting data on its users? How completely unexpected!
.Fuck this trend, fuck the tech industry.
The outrage for this has come too late, every IP enabled device is sending back telemetry at this point. We were worried about the government spying on us when it should of been the corporations all along.
The U.S congress doesn't even seem to understand the scope of this either, thinking its only confined to bad actors like Google and Facebook.
I sure hope they get plenty of valuable data from me muting the TV every time adverts are on
I don't watch TV so I just bought a big ol 50 inch 4K screen I hook up my PS4 and Chromecast to... Don't need any more frills. Guess it's a good thing I didn't get a Smart TV.
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