Posted on 12/06/2019 5:53:02 AM PST by BenLurkin
Terrill Frantz, a cybersecurity associate professor at Harrisburg University, compares smart TVs to your smartphone.
TVs on the market now have the ability to connect to the internet. They’re equipped with cameras, microphones, and in some cases, facial recognition technology.
“How easy is it for somebody to hack into a smart TV,” I asked. “Well, presently, it’s fairly easy,” answered Frantz.
The FBI says smart TVs are often poorly secured by their manufacturers, compared to computers or smartphones. Experts say cyber-criminals can hack in and change channels, play with the volume, and in a worst-case scenario, watch and listen to you.
(Excerpt) Read more at local21news.com ...
“Smart” anything is surveillance technology, period. Except the cars. Those are for culling the herd.
One of the more memorable moments in recent movies for me was in one of the Edward Snowden movies, where Snowden finds out that the NSA can use the cameras on people’s computer monitors to spy on them. I remember hearing that years ago and thinking it was a crazy paranoid myth.
I’ve got tape over the cameras in our phones and computers, but I can’t find the camera on our Samsung smart TV. I guess I’m not as tech-savvy as I thought.
The camera on my Samsung TV is recessed in the top/center/rear of the set. You have to physically press down on it to pop it out and it flops into position. While a microphone could be listening, that camera ain’t seeing anything unless I let it.
DUH! Is there anything more useless than the current FBI?
No. But the NSA is.
It’s usually in the middle below the screen. I use frosted clear tape so it can still detect room lighting.
Thanks for that info. I think my tv does not have any external camera, unless it’s internal to the screen. Is that even possible? I was able to find the e-manual online (it’s a Samsung 6200 55”), and it doesn’t mention any voice-activated or camera function. I did disable the ad-specific language in the T&Cs, so that’s something positive.
MIGHT be?
How about *certainly is*???
I really need to proofread my posts better ... just wondering how an external camera could be internal to the screen. Need more caffeine.
I would not question the knowledge or experience of someone who lived under the USSR.
It’s not internal to the screen. It still has to be a lens somewhere. If there is no lens anywhere around the frame or stand, it doesn’t have one.
In America television watches you.
Post of the day!
The difference being, in the USSR the government was listening to keep you in line, while the technology in this article is listening in order to sell you something down the road. Your phone, your tv, you home devices such as Google Home and Amazon Echo are all listening to find out what you like and what you don’t like. They want your tendencies and how you make decisions. They want your money, they do not want to throw you in jail.
I bought a fairly dumb tv. No camera or microphone. I do have an Andriod based streaming box that has a microphone on the remote. I keep the microphone turned off in Settings, for what that’s worth. I kill power to the TV and Box by turning off a strip plug when we’re not using it. I’m wanting to build my own linux+kodi based streaming box one of these days. Might do android powered box but it would be a dev droid version not a google tainted version.
“.. unplug it, or don’t buy it...”
That’s what I was thinking, unplug it. I am in the market for a TV and most ads have Smart TV built in. Don’t want a spy in my home.
I would screw with it by leaving the TV on tuned to Telemundo all day, or streaming some radio station in Mandarin Chinese. Then let it go nuts trying to sell me stuff in the wrong language.
I keep my TV in a big cabinet. The doors are closed except when I'm actually watching something. I guess the microphone could still be on even when the camera is blocked, but all it would hear is me occasionally telling my cat to get off my lap because I'm getting up.
And that is problem with these trends. Once they have some idea that this is what everyone wants, everyone who doesn’t want it is forced to get it or get nothing at all because they are no longer available. This is how they force these on everyone.
I can sacrifice and live without a huge screen if there are smaller basic minimal featured models available. Or I will go to the thrift store first and have absolutely no shame in doing so. Let the idiots be idiots if they like, I will not follow the trend of being an idiot... I will do without it and read a book before I make myself an idiot.
Now if more had this personal principle, willpower, and resolve this crap would stop. Start being a leader and trend setter rather than a trend follower to be herded like sheep.
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