I’d like to start a discussion about TV privacy in 2023. I’ve never been interested in having a TV, but recently I was thinking of getting one. Looking into it, the privacy implications seem horrible. All the major brands seem to have cameras, microphones, and content recognition software. I can’t believe how dystopian it is.
I also notice that most of the articles about this are from a few years ago. Are things better now? Do they still collect an Orwellian amount of data?
As I understand it, there are a few mitigation options:
- Leave it disconnected from the internet and use a separate device for streaming. But it sounds like some brands have incessant nag screens, or disable features until connected to the internet. I was looking into the Samsung Frame TV, but I’m not even sure you can use the art mode without internet. Does anyone know?
- Pi-hole set up with a blocklist. It’s disheartening that such a technical solution would be necessary.
- Get a commercial “dumb” display. These are more expensive, and usually thicker.
- Go through the menu and disable privacy violating settings. Does this work? I’m doubtful.
I have one of those cheap TCL Roku TVs, I think it was something like $130 for a 55 inch a few years ago on sale.
I put it on a VLAN then added a rule just for it to only ever allow communication to my Jellyfin server. No internet, no other devices, Wireless AP isolation, just able to access that port on that address.
It works ok but it does nag me that it’s not connected when opening Jellyfin, cheaper than adding a dedicated TV box to it though! I tried a similar setup with an old Fire TV and it really doesn’t like being “offline” like that and makes you navigate through the settings to open any of the apps.
If I were buying new I’d try to go for a monitor for sure, it’s just not worth all the potential issues.