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Ask Slashdot: Should I Allow A 'Smart TV' To Connect To The Internet?
Slashdot reader GovCheese has a question:
I use Roku and also the client apps on my gaming consoles for Amazon and Netflix. But it seems less prudent to allow my television, a Samsung, to connect to the internet. My Phillips Blu-ray wants to connect also. But I'd rather not. Is it illogical to allow Roku and a console to connect to streaming services but prevent a "smart" television from doing so?
Slashdot reader gurps_npc argues there's a distinction between devices that need internet access and devices that want it, adding "Smart TVs overcharge in privacy invasion for the minimal advantages they offer."
Leave your own best answers in the comments. Should you let a smart TV connect to the internet?
Slashdot reader gurps_npc argues there's a distinction between devices that need internet access and devices that want it, adding "Smart TVs overcharge in privacy invasion for the minimal advantages they offer."
Leave your own best answers in the comments. Should you let a smart TV connect to the internet?
The Blu-Ray player needs to connect to the internet for updates to be able to play the latest discs.
That's a good argument for not having a Blu-Ray player, and for using your game console as your player. Frankly, Blu-Ray's hype far exceeds its delivery. Having compared DVD and Blu-Ray side by side, Blu-Ray's improvements are merely marginal at the best of times, and completely insignificant the rest of the time.
That's a good argument for not having a Blu-Ray player, and for using your game console as your player.
Except the game consoles spy on you even more than the Blu-Ray player, and are both developed, produced and sold by sleazy corporations with the morals of bedbugs who have been known to distribute malware. (Microsoft is still distributing spyware, disguised as an Operating System.)
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insert your cock into holes between bathroom stalls in any Miami club? Stupid question.
However with the holes in the firmware that you can find today it might be a good idea to put your entertainment system on a separate subnet at home compared to the other devices - and only open that net when you really need.
Segmentation of networks is a good security measure these days.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
Does connecting your TV to the internet brings you something?
- Yes : connect it
- No : don't
It's that simple.
And the fact that you connect a device to the internet (because it is useful for you to do so) doesn't mean you have to connect everything. It is not all or nothing. From a security/privacy perspective you want to keep your attack surface as small as possible, but it doesn't mean you need to completely wall yourself in unless you have more to hide than normal people.
What kind of retarded question is this? If you use any features that require the internet, connect it to the internet. I watch Amazon Video on my Smart TV, so it is online. If you don't need anything like that you might as well not connect it.
If you are worried about the top-secret national security level stuff you have on your local network, well, ask you security team, not slashdot... And in any case from a security/privacy perspective you should probably be even more worried about other devices (starting with your mobile phone).
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Do you know your device?
Do not let anything connect to the Internet if you don't know why it should.
Rich And Stupid is not so bad as Working For Rich And Stupid.
I wonder if Chinese TVs will have less of that (owing to state controls) -- if true, I might become interested in Chinese TVs.
ROFL! Chinese TVs with LESS monitoring because of their government? Funniest comment on the intertubez!
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Pretty much the only reason I let my "smart" TV connect to the Internet is for firmware updates.
What makes you assume that firmware updates are a good thing? very often they downgrade performance and insert official malware.
Botnets.
Have gnu, will travel.
Try buying a TV that isn't "smart" these days. Even cheap, low end TVs have some sort of smarts built in. As much as I'd like to, you can't buy a "dumb" TV anymore.
I take the attitude that if it's working fine then I don't need an update. If it's not broken, don't fix it. Now if you've got an issue with the TV research the problem and if there is a fix you would certainly want to download it. Other than that though, why bother?
I don't even bother with firmware updates. My TV needs only display an HDMI signal, and *nothing more*. If it can't do that properly out of the box, then WTF. I'm more worried about updates breaking something that's currently working, or adding some crapware or spyware that I can't remove. It's kind of a sad state.
I have videogame consoles that work well as media players. I know they'll be kept up to date for a reasonable lifetime, at least, and they seem far less likely to have hidden spyware or security vulnerabilities.
I know a lot of people say "put them on a separate network", but that's not really practical if you want to allow them access to your media server, for instance. I'd have to end up buying a lot of duplicate hardware to make that work. So, for the moment, I'm simply very judicious about which devices I give my wifi password to. Thank goodness that's still a way to easily control my devices network access.
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