LG’s TV business is heightening focus on selling ads and tracking.

  • cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de
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    1 month ago

    This is one of the reasons I’ve never connected my TV to the internet and I never will. I use a mini PC running Linux with a remote and wireless keyboard. It’s much more capable than whatever is built into a TV.

    • PineRune@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      slaps back of smart tv this baby has 256MB of RAM!

      tv unresponsive for 30 seconds after turning on, loading the RAM full of adware

    • Salvo@aussie.zone
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      1 month ago

      We have AppleTVs on every TV in the house and none of the TVs have ever been connected to the home network. Same with the rest of the extended family.

      We also have a HDHomeRun in each house for those rare occasions when we want to watch Broadcast TV.

      The only time a TV changes from HDMI1 is when someone wants to play PS or XBox.

  • Maestro@fedia.io
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    1 month ago

    I wonder if it is possible to sue TV makers for adding ads after you purchased the device.

    • grue@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      It shouldn’t be a matter of suing; the companies (and their executives personally) should be criminally prosecuted for violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act by exceeding authorized access. Nobody legitimately consents to having their property sabotaged and used to exploit them, so this enshittification should be treated like any other instance of malicious hacking.

      • grue@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        And another thing: it is absolutely an indictment of American society how we’ve all been conditioned to tolerate this shit, to the point that only one person in this thread even manages to think of it as a civil tort and everybody else just sort of shrugs and discusses technological workarounds.

        Where the Hell is the righteous anger‽ We should be marching on the FTC with fucking torches and pitchforks, to force them to start doing their goddamn jobs again!

        • MelodiousFunk@slrpnk.net
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          1 month ago

          Where the Hell is the righteous anger‽

          The ember is still there. Once in a while it flares up. But it burned too bright for too long, and is part of the reason why I’m a cynical husk of a human being. I advocate for privacy-centric thinking among friends and family but it’s either preaching to the choir (in the best cases), blank stares, or they’ve already got an Amazon speaker in every room just to turn the lights on/off and set timers.

          tl;dr I’m tired, boss.

        • madcaesar@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          There’s just soooo many idiots vs people that care and educate themselves on privacy.

          Every once in a while I visit friends or stay at hotels and catch a glimpse of cable… My God it’s just endless ads with minutes of shows sprinkled in.

          And they are paying for it…

    • tibi@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      We need better consumer protection laws.

      Why is it legal for companies to collect every data they want or the ability to turn it off (and not allow you to use the device you purchased unless you consent to their abusive EULA)? Why is it legal for companies to remove functionality from a device after the purchase? Why is it legal for companies to prevent you from using devices you paid for unless you agree to forced arbitration (and there’s no way to withdraw your consent).

    • LiveLM@lemmy.zip
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      1 month ago

      I believe so.
      But if it goes anything like most class action lawsuits, it’d take forever, and if they don’t manage to absolve themselves because you clicked ‘Agree’ on the TOS screen (even though the TV wouldn’t work otherwise), the final settlement would be a whopping $12

  • MelodiousFunk@slrpnk.net
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    1 month ago

    Step 1. Buy “smart” TV on sale
    Step 2. Use the money saved to buy/build a streaming box of your own choosing
    Step 3. Never ever connect the fucking TV to the internet

  • NutinButNet@hilariouschaos.com
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    1 month ago

    Glad I’ve kept mine offline all this time. Also have a PiHole that I hope would stop this shit too.

    I got enough of it from Samsung.

    For the amount of money I paid for these TVs, I should get a discount if you’re going to shove some ads down my throat. Especially when most of them are irrelevant to my interests.

    • madcaesar@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Paid products should have ZERO ads whether relevant or not. I cancelled Amazon prime the minute they added ads into videos. Fuck that shit.

      As a consequence my Amazon shopping has taken a nose dive. I used to buy shit constantly because I had free shipping now I have to really really REALLY need something and even then I’ll wait till I need at least 35$ worth to still get free shipping.

      If more people stood up to enshitification we’d be much better off as consumers.

  • taiyang@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    I haven’t noticed, but I did hear you can root WebOS TVs which include LGs. I may look into it if it gets intrusive. The front page is already showing ads, after all, although not nearly as awful as my fire stick was before.

    • Rentlar@lemmy.ca
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      1 month ago

      Note you may want to check your versions and avoid updating in case they patch out debug or bypass functionalities. I vaguely remember concerns about that on some models.

  • SendMePhotos@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    I really do miss old TVs. I don’t want/need a smart TV yet that’s all they sell.

    Matter of fact I don’t need channels. All I need is a giant monitor. No volume control, no channels, just like 3-4 HDMI, power button, and some screen settings.