Hacker News Reader

Comment by egamirorrim | Hacker News Reader

This stuffs mad, should I be doing something to my Samsung TV to neuter it? Has anyone rolled all this up somewhere?

There was just a post yesterday about how to root your samsung. I rooted my samsung and removed ads, mics, and my agent is looking into this one as we speak [codex].

Happy to post to github if you'd like.

Please do post to GitHub, I have a Samsung projector I'd love to root

Any word on rooting TCL models?

I haven't looked into TCL at all, but everything I know on this topic I learned in one day, so if you have even a $20 a month AI subscription and you're passionate I'd say give it a go.

There needs to be a class action against these companies. People should straight up go to jail for how invasive these TVs are.

Except none of it is illegal, so what would you sue them for?

Wiretapping is a felony in most jurisdictions with 5 years prison per instance.

How many years is it for 10 million devices?

It's in the ToS, is it not? Like Alexa or whatever.

Under GDPR a fair amount is illegal

Do a search on X on the topic, the news about Samsung was broken on there by a guy who had rooted his Samsung TV using AI tools and he and others created guides for neutering the stuff out of it

He also got his OpenAI account banned after sharing the findings for 'violating cyber policies'. https://x.com/i/trending/2113715638950912393

I'm glad for that. The harder OpenAI squeezes the more people leave for open source models.

Not buy smart TVs and especially Samsung smart devices in general?

From what I heard these are especially awful, even by low IoT standards.

What about my existing device(s)? I don't want to be the one piling on the huge mountain of electronic trash! So how can I save my device from evil?

Take over using own software update signed with private key 4?

(no idea how likely is for someone trustworthy to publish one...)

All smart TVs are evil and you’d be hard pressed to find a non smart tv these days.

Samsung does seem to be particularly bad. I’ve heard enough stories that I would never buy one of their products.

LG is even worse.

Yeah "We own the glass". :(

Don't connect it to the internet.

I keep seeing this, and I still think it's a ridiculous ask. Whether you like it or not, the vast majority is not savvy enough to think about this, and they generally just want Netflix to work without an additional service. For a majority of people 600 is expensive, and they don't want to have to spend another 30-100 depending on the device.

Just wait until https://sidewalk.amazon/ (or competing solutions) hits Smart TV manufacturers so they can still collect data / do ad operations.

Or what the recent bitcoin wallet attack did and just put a cellular chip inside the device so it can always communicate outside.

The monthly cost of a sim card is pretty high relative to the actual value of targeting ads to the user, especially when most of their customer base is already connecting it to wifi. Sidewalk requires a very cheap module - the EBYTE E220-900M22S is under $3 and and the Wio-SX1262 is $4, compared to cellular connections which - last time I checked - were $5/mo per device, depending on data requirements. Maybe 5G has changed that. I guess a MFG could also only renew a SMS contract for IMEIs where the underlying device hasn't been connected to the internet via wifi.

Unplug it.

Selling it off might be a good solution

That makes it someone else's problem who is less informed. You shouldn't be fine foisting problems on people too ignorant to deal with it.

Market gets flooded with these devices. Someone notices they are cheap, opens a Reddit thread about what is going on. Google Search picks it up. Now people who search for this TV (new or used) see a hit about malware in this TV. Buyers need to perform due diligence. However, in EU, sellers need to inform buyers of obvious negative sides of a product. Malware appears to be one of them.

I agree with you in principle, but also you can’t fight all the battles singlehandedly :(

That's why we fight together as best we can. Syndicate. Spread awareness. Do whatever you are able, and damnit, we both know it's more than nothing. If not for yourself, then do it for those you care about most.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com