Some advice on how to stop it. But I’m surprised that she doesn’t provide the simplest solution, which is what I do: Don’t give it your wifi password. The assumption seems to be here that you are using the “smart” features of the television, but I just use mine for a video monitor.
8 thoughts on “Spying Televisions”
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My tv and all associated devices are OFF when I am not using then. This is guaranteed by the off switch on my power strip. I started doing this 20 plus years ago to save the power consumption for the “instant on” features. It made a small but noticeable difference in my electric bill.
I started because my entertainment cabinet was warm even when all of my equipment was supposed to be off.
Stan
The problem with my newest SmartTV is that it is worthless without a WiFi connection because the one who watches it doesn’t watch anything OTA on it so there’s no point in hooking up the antenna and using it w/o the WiFi. At some point I’ll have to ask her if she’d like me to set it up not to spy on her. I don’t use it. I still use my Panasonic Plasma monitor from 2005. My cable box does the spying on me. She also has an Alexa so it’s all probably pointless.
I put duct tape over all cameras I find
They probably don’t need your WiFi to talk to home. CPAP and other devices come with their own coms, why not tvs?
If it doesn’t need it, why does it demand my password? And what would it tell home, when it doesn’t know what it’s showing on the screen?
Unless it’s got a SIM card, it’s got to connect to your home network.
I stopped watching television several years ago as it had nothing of value to watch. Like newspapers it’s a relict of a bygone era. It is much easier to just stream the shows you wish to watch when you wish to watch them. I also turn off the power on my computers, Wi-Fi and (gasp) my mobile phone when not using them, both to save energy and create an air gap to block hackers .
The problem with mobile phones is: if it’s a “smartphone” is that unless its battery is dead it’s never really “off”. The best way to secure a smart phone that you use often is to turn it “off” (aka standby mode) and then throw it into a defunct microwave oven with only the ground lead plugged in so it doesn’t get turned on accidentally. Or just get a dumb old flip phone.