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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.
What they mean by that is that they didn't intend for people to object to the ads or for their poor behavior to be called out.
It's really too bad, I have an older Samsung HDTV and it's really great. I was considering buying another Samsung when the time came to replace it. Now what am I going to buy? Sony? Vizio?
Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.
I have been in the market for an HDTV for a while now, but haven't been convinced that any aren't massive security holes.
So quarantine it on the network just like you would any other untrusted machine. Firewall, DMZ, etc. I think it is only sane to regard devices like this as insecure and to behave accordingly. I think the same could be said for lots of so-called smart home devices. Anything you don't have a reasonable approximation of full control over should be treated as insecure by default
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.
Television is not, nor was it ever arguably, designed with your education or entertainment in mind. Ever since Winston Cigarettes the primary objective of television has been to deliver flashing lights and colours in order to captivate viewers. These viewers would then be marketed a product, and as television advertising grew the methods and systems used to achieve this goal would change. most TV is drama, and peddles fear uncertainty and doubt as powerful emotions to ensure you'll consume related products and services to either fictitious (house, ER) plots, or "real" stories (Dr. Oz, or Gupta.)
when people marvel, "gee, i cant believe how cheap a $n inch tv is these days" what they fail to realize is the only entity capitalizing value off the television is advertisers. That consumers are literally paying money to be offered goods and services which in turn consume more of their income is laughable. So when we come full-stop to samsungs offering of what basically amounts to a fist clenched cash grab from the viewer its almost offensive to think we've ever cared what the television did before, let alone now. This one listens to your conversations, where as the old "dumb" tv's would just use market research to determine what you could be forced into consuming. This one injects ads, whereas before tivo, the hopper, and every major DVR from a cable company did the exact same thing.
on an unrelated note: siri, amazon, and google have all offered a product that listens to your conversations but doesnt provide the distraction of television. The problem isnt that a product we've always trusted is becoming unweildy, is that a product thats never served us is becoming an affront to privacy.
Good people go to bed earlier.
when something like a TV will require accepting an EULA in order to use it as intended. No doubt, buried in the EULA will be your agreeing to let them send ads whenever they want. What's next, a coffee machine that can insert other brands of coffee into the brew cycle?
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
It seems that every "smart" appliance has a lot of foolish thinking behind it.
AKA greed. I'd be surprised if I'm the only person who avoids companies that keep finding ways to get around ad blockers.
VENDORS: Wanna advertize to me? Do it DISCRETELY while I'm SEARCHING for YOUR product; and ONLY if you have a product I'm looking for; otherwise, you lose me as a customer/client. Want me to receive your ads? PAY *me*, not only the ad pushers!
Gotta wonder... would Pepsi, Coke and other "name brands" really lose much business if they stopped advertising? Or would their net profit increase by not wasting $$ on ads?
I use AdBlock and Ghostery's lists to block ad networks and trackers at the router level. Any computer/phone/smart device that connects to my network automatically has ads and trackers blocked. So far, so good. Granted, it's not simple enough for the everyday person to implement. Also, I don't buy any smart TVs because their software is most often crap, you shouldn't have to accept an EULA to use a TV (or a coffee machine, toaster, etc), and they have the capacity to be bricked unlike a regular "dumb" TV. And then there's this eavesdropping and injecting additional ads BS.
There used to be a fiduciary responsibility to maintain the public trust. We didn't need laws to protect people, because there weren't unnamed unknown faceless corporations hiding nefarious activities.
This is why, I suggest that we start using the Corporation Death Penalty for gross violations of public trust. And use it in cases like this, where public trust is abused behind corporate greed.
THIS, backhanded, sleazy greed, this abuse of public trust, needs to be slapped down hard.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
Apple. They are very up front with how they get their money from you and that's in the hardware prices. They charge a lot for hardware but so far they don't try to screw you after purchase by advertising or selling your data.
Read your Itunes T&C.
They can share your data with any "partner" they choose.
They're worse than Google with selling your data, at least Google is upfront about it, rather than burying it in 100 pages of legalese.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.