How to Stop Your Smart TV from Spying on You
Chances are your smart TV is spying on you. Smart TVs often analyze the videos you watch and report whether you're watching TV...
25/01/2022
Chances are your smart TV is spying on you. Smart TVs often analyze the videos you watch and report back, whether you're watching live TV, streaming video on a service like Netflix, or playing local video files. Worse still, it may be a security issue.
TVs really should be dumb screens
. Smart TVs not only have bad interfaces, they spy on what you're watching even when you're not using those smarts. Their security practices are also often quite poor.
The problem
CONNECTION:
Smart TVs are dumb: Why you don't really want a smart TV
Modern smart TVs often have "features" that inspect what you're watching and report it to certain companies' servers. This data may be sold to marketers or linked to you in some way to create a better ad targeting profile. Really, you don't get any of that - the TV maker just makes a bit more money with that data. Vizio just made headlines because such a feature is
enabled by default on Vizio smart TVs
.
This tracking doesn't just apply to smart TV apps – even if you plug in a Roku or Apple TV and stream something from Netflix, the TV can analyze the image it's showing and report that data. It can show the channel number you're watching if you're watching live TV, or the filenames of local video files on a USB stick plugged into your smart TV.
Smart TVs also have questionable security protections.
Vizio TVs transmitted this tracking data without any encryption
, so other people can snoop around. They also connect to a server without verifying that it is a legitimate server, so a man-in-the-middle attack could send commands back to the TV.
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Vizio says it's fixed that issue and TVs will automatically update to new firmware. But do these smart TVs even verify that they are downloading legitimate firmware files with correct digital signatures? Based on TV makers' cavalier attitude to security in general, we're concerned.
Some smart TVs have built-in cameras and microphones — if security is so poor in general, it would theoretically be possible for an attacker to spy on you through your TV.
Just don't connect your TV to Wi-Fi or Ethernet
Just don't connect your smart TV to your home network and you'll be protected from all the built-in spy features it has and any security vulnerabilities that could be exploited.
Do not connect your smart TV to your Wi-Fi network. If so, go to your smart TV's settings and disconnect it from Wi-Fi. Also, do not connect it to the network with an Ethernet cable. If you are already connected to the Wi-Fi network, try to make your smart TV forget the password. If you can't, you may need to reset it to its factory defaults — don't give it the Wi-Fi password when you reconfigure it.
It will also prevent your smart TV from embedding additional advertisements in other things you watch. in a streaming box like a
AppleTV
,
Roku
,
Chromecast
,
FireTV
, video game console, or one of the many other devices that work better and should be more secure than your smart TV. This box can be connected to the Internet.
Try disabling spy features (not recommended)
We recommend that you simply disconnect your smart TV from the network and be done with it. If it can't connect to the internet, it can't cause you any problems - period. Either way, you won't want to use its smart features when you can just use a superior streaming device.
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If you want to leave it connected to the network, you could try disabling the spying features. It will be a different process on different TV models.
Even worse, simply toggling the option may do nothing. Even if you do not agree to Vizio's privacy policy when setting up the TV, Vizio still enables monitoring features on your TV. Disabling spy features may also not prevent the TV from being exploited through its security holes. New spy features can be automatically added in firmware updates.
If you really want to disable spy features instead, you'll find them somewhere in your TV's settings menu. On Vizio TVs, this setting is named “Smart Interactivity” and it can be hidden under System > Reset & Admin. Here is
Vizio's instructions for disabling it
.
LG Smart TVs may have a “Collect Viewing Information” setting. On some Samsung Smart TVs, you can go to a “Smart Features” menu and turn off “Voice Recognition” to disable always-listening voice commands. Other smart TVs from other manufacturers may have many different settings named differently from model to model.
This is part of a larger problem with "
the Internet of Things
", which envisions modern appliances (from your toaster and blender to microwave and refrigerator) becoming "smart" and connecting to the network.
As we have seen with Android smartphones p>
, most device manufacturers do not seem capable of creating secure software and updating it. Smart devices seem fine, but the reality - eavesdropping and security breaches - seems like a serious problem.
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