favoredponcho3d ago

An Israeli company has backdoored hundreds of millions of households through countless Smart TV apps, and they're quietly turning Samsung and LG TVs into exit nodes for AI web-scraping

https://lemmy.zip/post/65670694

An Israeli company has backdoored hundreds of millions of households through countless Smart TV apps, and they're quietly turning Samsung and LG TVs into exit nodes for AI web-scraping - Lemmy.zip

Lemmy

Show threadFishnoodle
So how do we disable/sabotage that feature?
Jun 6 at 1:11pmWeb
Show threadfrongt3d ago
Don’t put your TV on the Internet
Show threadManxome3d ago

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

Show threadDaddleDew3d ago
Pardon my ignorance but how do you know what DNS server to block?
Show threadOk_imagination3d ago
In the article they have this info under defense approaches.
Show threadrc__buggy3d ago
It’s not blocking a DNS server, it’s using DNS to block their specific servers.
Show threadmanopor3d ago
I blocked them as wildcard domains on Android with app RethinkDNS.
Show threadFishnoodle2d ago
Nice, they were already blocked on my router
Show threadArgentRaven3d ago

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.