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Comment by reactordev | Hacker News Reader

I threw away all TVs in my house after the proliferation of ads on the Home Screen. Sorry, the only value a TV has is displaying images and audio at large sizes. Not getting me to shop. So I decided to get rid of them all and now I use large monitors and projectors. Make TVs dumb again.

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The article is about radio waves from TV broadcast towers, not the TV in your home.

well, it's about the radio receiver in the TV in your home

Not really, it’s about anyone with a receiver that’s physically near you using radio “shadows” to detect movement. The author just happened to do these particular measurements using TV signals; they explicitly mention that radio signals in other bands also work.

This makes no sense.

This problem is solved via two ways (or both at once):

- Pihole

- Unplug the TV from ethernet and disable wifi

All my TVs display no ads because they are jailed.

> Unplug the TV from ethernet and disable wifi

This likely requires opening the case and physically disabling (hence knowing what you are doing). Or the TV will find other devices to transmit the data. Not an easy measure for everyone.

a TV cannot "find" a way onto the internet without your wifi password (don't say insecure wireless networks)

Amazon Sidewalk is an example of an opt-out long-range cross-household device mesh/relay network using Bluetooth and LoRa to exfiltrate surveillance data.

They are consumers and have no idea

Tvs do not connect to amazon side walk to serve you ads ( was that your argument)?

My point was mainly about exfiltrating surveillance data from devices that weren't explicitly given a network connection. Being served ads is a secondary concern.

Tvs aren’t doing that (unless you meant from the wifi you gave it to serve you ads)

Sure, if you discount the glaring wide open loophole your argument is perfectly airtight.

You know that many TVs these days have deals with companies like Comcast to allow them to join the open wifi networks they don't allow you to not broadcast from your home, right?

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