A community for Lemmy users interested in privacy
Rules:
Privacy is ultimately lost isn't it?
It's just a matter of time before actual 1984 level prevention of wrong comments and everyone is going to be listened to all the time.
Whether AI grows quickly or slowly it will just add to it. Those with power will control it and it will reinforce their opinions and silence ours.
make Orwell fiction again
This is why I use a Linux box hooked up to a crt
I maintain that everyone who buys every pice of smart crap tech is a fucking idiot.
A note on what the partner list proves: Being listed in Bright Data’s config means an integration might have existed at some point. It does not by itself prove that a specific publisher’s currently-shipping app(s) includes the SDK in production. For any named publisher, per-app verification is required.
I'm not sure what this article is claiming is happening? My TV is browsing websites? Why haven't they proven it? Seems like it would be relatively simple to monitor the web traffic from the TV to see if that's happening, then they wouldn't put a disclaimer about it being unproven, Are they asking me to do the verification work for them?
Feeling really happy that my tv lost internet privileges a while back
I just double checked mine is cut off… it was
Never hurts to double check, I'm envisioning a future where they have sim cards like cars do now.
Good thing I air gapped my TV.
Ehhh...yeah, maybe, but I think that the problem is really broader than that.
Petflix, a Roku app documented by The Verge, is a representative case. Its opt-in screen reads: “To enjoy Petflix for free with fewer ads, you are allowing Bright Data to occasionally use your device’s free resources and IP address to download public web data from the internet...
Say you have kids. And your kids have friends over. Are you curating what "free" apps your kids' friends have on their phones that they connect to your WiFi network?
Those kids had to sit through the security PowerPoint before getting the Wi-Fi just like my kids did. If they fail the phishing test they comes around a week after the presentation they will not make it on my devices whitelist.
I control all apps, so yes.
So they turned millions of TVs into a giant VPN? That would actually be kind of cool if they had asked first. I mean, imagine a torrent network like that.
No, they're saying that it's technically possible for an Israeli company to have done this. The article says that an SDK exists, but there is no proof that it's being used in the way they're speculating about. They're Just Asking Questions (TM). But it's possible and mentioning an Israeli company makes certain people paranoid similar to how mentioning Warren Buffet makes certain people paranoid.
It's be relatively simple for security researchers to monitor the traffic from smart TV. But maybe all of the security researchers are working for the Israelis too. Can't prove that they aren't all working for the Israelis. Therefore we should just trust in what is implied by this one article that isn't even showing any network packets from any specific devices.
Just how internet conspiracy theories work. People tend to not question those that are Just Asking Questions so long those implicated in the conspiracy are people they hate.
Yeah I know, I'm just saying if somebody actually accomplished this it would be kind of cool (in a nerdy way but not politically).
So how do we disable/sabotage that feature?
Don't put your TV on the Internet
One approach per the article:
Approach 1: DNS block (trivial, effective for network-routed devices):
proxyjs.brdtnet.com
proxyjs.luminatinet.com
proxyjs.bright-sdk.com
clientsdk.bright-sdk.com
clientsdk.brdtnet.com
Nice, they were already blocked on my router
Pardon my ignorance but how do you know what DNS server to block?
In the article they have this info under defense approaches.
It's not blocking a DNS server, it's using DNS to block their specific servers.
I blocked them as wildcard domains on Android with app RethinkDNS.
I've had great success with using a PC instead. My TV acts like a glorified monitor. I take an old PC, run Ethernet to it (Wi-Fi if it's capable) and install Linux mint for the PC's operating system. Windows works if you have a supported version. But since it's always an old PC, I just use mint. Then I get a cheapo wireless keyboard, and when I want to watch TV I wake the PC up from hibernation, turn on the TV and speakers, and I can use Firefox with Ublock origin to keep ads and tracking to a minimum.
I couldn't ever go back to using janky TV apps and being suspicious that it's watching/listening to me.
Probably a dumb question, but do these devices attempt to reach a specific domain? Can that domain be blocked with something like a PiHole or AdGuardHome?
It's in the article.