Reposting this from here from 2023, after I stumbled across it tonight and it hits hard.

The text in the image:

I love my smart TV. I love the way it takes a long time to boot up because it’s trying to refresh the advertisements on the home screen. I delight in the way it randomly restarts because it’s downloaded an update without asking me, each of which makes the TV slower and slower with every subsequent install. I adore the way it buries the apps that I want to use, and that I use without fail every single time, below the apps that it’s being paid to promote and which I have never touched in my life and would never use without the cold metal of a glock pressed hard against my sweating temple. I am infinitely thrilled by the way the interface lags constantly, due to the need to have one thousand unnecessary animations rendered on hardware ripped wholesale from a ten year old phone. I feel myself borne aloft on wings of pure joy when I am notified that my data will be collected and analysed to determine my usage patterns. Even now I am writing this from a field of beautiful flowers and soft luscious grass as I lie and look up happily at the bright blue sky, smiling happily to know that this is the future of technology

      • 𝕸𝖔𝖘𝖘@infosec.pubEnglish
        7·
        1 day ago

        The smart ones are sold at cost or at a loss, and your privacy is then sold to subsidize the profits. A dumb tv costs more money up front (since it’s not subsidized by your privacy), but it costs far less in overall value. It’s a tradeoff that the consumer needs to make. The lovely thing, is that (for now, at least) it is still a choice we can make.

          • 𝕸𝖔𝖘𝖘@infosec.pubEnglish
            3·
            1 day ago

            Not all tvs allow you to do that. Some require you to be online. Some took it a step further and are equipped with 4/5G modems to bypass your network restrictions.

            • oatscoop@midwest.social
              1·
              17 hours ago

              A set of torx screwdrivers and an exacto knife will take care of that. Pretty hard for a cellular modem to transmit data when the traces to the antenna are cut.

            • hessenjunge@discuss.tchncs.de
              1·
              1 day ago

              Some require you to be online.

              I’d take it back to the store as broken. Never heard of that though.

              Some took it a step further and are equipped with 4/5G modems to bypass your network restrictions.

              Never heard of this either and it would raise a massive stink in the EU. Can you share an example?

              • 𝕸𝖔𝖘𝖘@infosec.pubEnglish
                1·
                19 hours ago

                Both of these were in the USA. The first was with a friend’s purchase, the latter was an article he sent me. It’s been a little while, but I know one was Samsung, but can’t remember the other brand or which was which.

                • hessenjunge@discuss.tchncs.de
                  1·
                  16 hours ago

                  I wouldn’t put it past Samsung to try and force you to have internet access enabled so they can spy on you.

                  However having additional hardware to directly access the internet via cellular is a bit much. That might have been an Aprils fools article by some IT site.

                  When Sony tried to install root kits on PCs of folks just trying to watch a movie on a legit purchased DVD there was a quite large shitstorm.

                  • 𝕸𝖔𝖘𝖘@infosec.pubEnglish
                    1·
                    15 hours ago

                    Not an April fools, but it might have been a plan they (whoever it was) chose to later not follow through with.

                    I vaguely remember the Sony fiasco.

        • Piece_Maker@feddit.ukEnglish
          1·
          1 day ago

          Which is an entirely fair compromise for people who use Lemmy, but means precisely nothing to the majority.

          • locuester@lemmy.zipEnglish
            2·
            12 hours ago

            Well that’s not true. They have been in business for 40 years. They sell TVs for people who don’t want anything except video in. Mainly commercial places like offices, stadiums, etc.

              • locuester@lemmy.zipEnglish
                1·
                4 hours ago

                I’m not understanding what the point is that you’re trying to make? I’m sorry.

                • Piece_Maker@feddit.ukEnglish
                  1·
                  3 hours ago

                  I said that the privacy concerns being worth the cost of a “smart”-free TV means nothing to the majority of people.

                  You said that this isn’t true, and that their main customer is commercial places.

                  I suggested, in response to this, that the majority of people don’t own such commercial places.

                  What part are you not understanding?

                  • locuester@lemmy.zipEnglish
                    1·
                    11 minutes ago

                    Ah ok…

                    I was disputing the implication that this type of dumb tv only matters to Lemmy users. I felt as if that was an implication you were making in your first message. You left that out of your summary here.

                    Agree that the majority of people don’t want to pay for a dumb tv, and in fact I’d think that the majority of people would not even like a dumb tv. A tv with built in apps to access services is far more desired by the vast majority.

      • DdCno1@beehaw.org
        5·
        2 days ago

        Keep in mind that these are low-end TVs with, according to reviewers, generally subpar picture and sound quality, with quality issues that make them worse to look at than even old TVs. If you just need “a TV” and your only concerns are that the device is flat, the image in color and some sort of noise is escaping the speaker holes, they’ll do, but don’t expect anything more than that. To me at least, it makes more sense to not connect a smart TV to the network and use a separate streaming device attached to it.

        I would even buy a slightly older used dumb TV from a reputable manufacturer over one of these sketchy things, since it’s not like LCD TVs are finicky technology - they tend to last for an incredibly long time in my experience, easily 15 years or more. On my parents’ 2008ish Toshiba (1080p and every analog and digital input in the known universe, which, in combination with an excellent analog upscaler, makes it awesome for old games consoles - but it’s of course no looker in terms of colors by modern standards), the only thing that has broken so far is the spring of the power button, so I bent a wire press it in and a switch at the plug to be able to turn it off completely.

        This is getting a bit off-topic, but a relative of mine replaced her flatscreen TV from 2002 (!) just two years ago - and it was still working fine, but since it only had an analog tuner and SD resolution, she was looking for an upgrade. I got her a small 4K OLED from Samsung (since discontinued) and she’s very happy with it (even the “smart” features are quite inoffensive), although I did have to get her a soundbar as well, because if there’s one thing that has regressed on TVs, it’s sound quality, in part due to how ever thinner and lighter designs have reduced speakers to little more than phone speakers on some devices.