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Samsung Smart TVs Injected Ads Into Streamed Video
mpicpp sends this news from CNET:
Reports are emerging that Samsung smart TVs have begun inserting short advertisements directly into video streaming apps, with no influence from the third-party app providers. The news comes just days after Samsung made headlines for another incursion into users' lounge rooms, when it was revealed that its TV voice recognition software is capable of capturing personal information and transmitting it to third parties. ... The issue has been reported on the Plex streaming service — a brand of media player that allows users to stream their own video from a personal library or hard drive and push it to a smart TV.
Samsung says this was not intentional, and that they've fixed it so the ads should no longer show up.
It was an accident? So all this ad injection tech was a typo by some developer? lol. Why is it that the more popular a tech company gets the more of a dick it becomes? Is that some sort of business law? Samsung's trustworthiness is zero as far as I'm concerned.
I mean, with the plethora of set-top boxes like AppleTV, Roku, FireTV, ChromeCast, why would anyone in their right mind buy an all-in-one, especially from a known UI offender like Samsung (TouchWiz?).
Samsung should focus on making a TV with sound that doesn't suck (i.e., integrated wireless speakers that auto-calibrate) or maybe focus on style and setup for differentiation.
Whatever... they are a low-price disruptor and they essentially kicked Panasonic and Pioneer out of the market so they could foist this "app crap" on us. Whoever buys a Samsung "smart" TV deserves one I guess.
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Check the qualifiers. That behavior was intended, but for other markets. Samsung does have plans to introduce it to the Australian market, but in the long term.
That's exactly it. There's no way for them to claim it's unintentional, as it takes intentional code to create this behavior. I don't know what on earth these people are thinking, but I won't be buying any "smart" TV that decides to share my conversations and injects ads where they don't belong. Same thing goes for Keurig and their DRM'd coffe makers or any other "smart" applicances. It seems that every "smart" appliance has a lot of foolish thinking behind it.
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
Unfortunately above a certain screen size it's basically impossible to get a non-"smart" TV. Personally I can do without all the extra fluff and would prefer they just give me lots of input ports and great picture and drop the price a lot. If I want to stream something I'll get a separate device (Roku, Bluray etc) to do that. I already have a TiVo and it does pretty much 90%+ of what I want out of a TV.
Personally all I want is a huge screen with excellent picture and sound features and lots of input ports. Basically just a big monitor. Good luck getting that in 60+ inch screen size though...
Surely we've reached the point where advertisers can be classified as a highly invasive species of mammalian pests and our attentions turned to exterminating them, no?
this really needs to be made illegal by some consumer protections group. displaying ads, breaking hdmi, recording your voice these are all huge points your product did not do when you purchased it.
sadly, government will not likely do squat about that. oligarchies are like that. guess i'll be going back to the HTPC + dumb tv next purchase
Since when were dumb TVs ever subsidized by ads? The low cost of today's flat panel televisions is largely due to advances in electronics and mass manufacturing, not some hidden stealth subsidy. It's the programming that is subsidized by ads, not the device itself.
Ding! Ding! Ding! Winner.
I have a "smart" LG TV. I didn't plug in the ethernet and I didn't configure my Wi-Fi password. All of my 'Smarts' come from the Chromecast plugin and the XBMC sitting under it. I'm not trusting the TV with a connection to the outside world.
- For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat
Vizio is a pretty solid brand... at least for their larger TVs. Decent contrast, good response time, and if you choose carefully, no Smart TV nastiness. Of course, we bought the Smart TV at the time, but it doesn't get in the way. The only way you'll see it is if you press a certain button. And personally, they did Smart TV right. If you need it, it's there and easy to access. If you don't want it, don't worry about it - out of mind, out of sight.
How terrible is it that I am now suspicious of every post saying something good about a company or product? This could be a legit post, written by someone who has a positive experience with their TV. But I read the content and see it's posted by an AC and immediately think "astroturf". There is a trust that has been broken in our society; a lot actually. Something has been lost and I'm not sure if/how we get it back.
"What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
Looks like I just need a router with the same smarts as the TV, where the telly would be on its own network segment (so it can't change its IP and get around it.)
Maybe this is a harbinger of things to come where IoT devices in general would need firewalled due to privacy and security concerns.
Of course, the next counter from the TV makers, will be the TV either just not working at all with any inputs unless it has the ability to phone home (think games that require a constant network connection), or it gets a 3G antenna... so even without a direct Net connection, it still can phone home.
Maybe the best of all worlds is as described above... a HTPC + a large monitor. Smart TVs seem dumb to me, as they don't add any useful features, but seem be another vector for ad-slinging and invading privacy.
Of course! That's why they're all designed to work with the "cloud." Making it easy for Joe Dumbass to use without having to teach him how to set up his own server is only the excuse they tell "consumers;" the real reason they do it is for that sweet, sweet Big Data.
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
No, it would not. Modifications of websites using Greasemonkey and Adblock are done by the end user, which means no distribution of the modified work has occurred and therefore copyright law does not apply. Using Greasemonkey or Adblock is conceptually no different than taking a black marker to (your own copy of) a magazine and scribbling out the stuff you don't want to see.
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
It is not the responsibility of the government to protect people from their choices.
If only a few people care then those few will not buy from the manufacturer again. (Problem solved) If a bunch do it then companies lose business and change or exit the market. (Problem Solved) If they tell you in the TOS "You are shit and we will change your shit anytime we want." and you buy the device anyway "hoping" to not get screwed, ... I really don't care if later on you are not happy with your choice.
The need for the population to do everything possible to convince me that they are powerless, stupid and irresponsible amazes me. So many people are so lazy that they spend enormous amounts of energy to become as powerless over their lives as possible.
Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
We all need to get together and form some Big Dumb Companies:
* Big Dumb Pipe: High-Speed Symmetrical Broadband with no other restrictions, bells, whistles, nor even the ability to log your activities, given that it is only a Big. Dumb. Pipe.
* Big Dumb Appliances: No, they will not be running apps nor making predictive adjustments based on your FitBit. But they will have ALL user-replaceable parts and be so durable, most if not all will be handed down at least two generations.
* Big Dumb Panels: no built-in anything, such as DRM, locked-down SOCs, near-useless speakers, nor web cams, nor mics: just a big, beautiful screen, tiny bezels, a plethora of mounting holes, and damn near every type of video connection, period.
The ad campaign writes itself: "Big. Dumb. Ideas who's time have come."