But if *I* hijack *their* devices it's a "felony."
In this post we look under the hood of BrightData's SDK and how it turns ordinary consumer TVs into exit nodes of an enormous commercial, residential proxy network leveraged by the AI industry to scrape web data and train language learning models.
@Hex Personally, I'd just flatout refuse to use/buy a "Smart TV"…
I have a stupid panel and it works fine!
But if *I* hijack *their* devices it's a "felony." https://blog.includesecurity.com/2026/06/the-smart-tv-in-your-livingroom-is-a-node-in-the-aiscraping-economy/
@acsawdey or better yet:
Don't buy at all.
- If it ain't broken, no need to replace it!
https://mastodon.social/@kkarhan/116707152390010818
Like I'd just flatout refuse to buy a TV that doesn't allow me to just plug & play!
@silberfuchs @Hex what?
- You gonna tell me there isn't a single TV that one can just plug in and feed images via HDMI like a normal person?
- I mean, worst-case I'll get a digital signage screen from illyama.
But so far my cheapo 40" 1080p IPS-LCD-TV refuses to die, so I see no reason to even consider replacing it.
@kkarhan @silberfuchs @Hex yea, just don't connect them to internet and most work fine. annoyingly slower than the previous year's model, every year, due to the bloat still running... but it's nerfed. and they sold it to you at a loss.
and return the ones that don't work fine, obviously. let them eat the fees.
@groxx @silberfuchs @Hex I mean, my 10 yr old stupid TV still works fine.
- No reason to replace anything!
@saxnot @kkarhan @groxx @silberfuchs @Hex One example that comes to mind is that, when they have services like Netflix, Disney +, etc. preloaded onto the TV.
Mostly useful if, say, you have kids, given that those services effectively replaced cable...sort of.
@saxnot @kkarhan @groxx @silberfuchs @Hex (And with respect to kids, people can babysit... without needing your laptop to have the kid watch the "Show/Movie of the month".
Is screentime bad for kids' minds? Maybe, but it's good for babysitting damage control; "Sit here and watch Frozen again while I put <Younger kid> to their crib." is...an amazing way to make babysitting multiple kids manageable as a single babysitter.
@kkarhan @saxnot @groxx @silberfuchs @Hex Sure, but now you need *two* devices, and you have to always make sure the TV screen is set to the right input to accept the Kodi box, once it's turned on (It is on, right?).
The benefit of a smart TV is that, as long as they aren't spying and telemetry harvesting your data, you get the best of both, but in one device.
@AT1ST @saxnot @groxx @silberfuchs @Hex well, I've yet to find a TV (or any screen) that doesn't turn on upon getting an HDMI/DVI/VGA/DP/SCART signal.
- And the few cases where you don't want people fumbling around (and you can't be assed to i.e. send a Wake-on-LAN packet) are digital signage and those are on 24/7 or get powered on/off by scheduled breakers anyway…
@kkarhan @saxnot @groxx @silberfuchs @Hex I take it you don't run multiple inputs into a single TV, without using an input splitter.
If you have something that's HDMI 1, another on HDMI 2, and a third on DVI, and most of those devices are just in sleep mode most of the time (Or some are perpetually on.), then...it really sells the "Just go to one screen, and figure out which of the 5 services has the movie/show you want to watch.".
@saxnot @groxx @silberfuchs @Hex +9001%
Worst-Case I just shove #Kodi (nee #xbmc) on a #NUC (or upcycled Laptop*) and have that as an option.
- Getting a cheap wireless combo thingy (i.e. Logitech MK270 or Rii X8) and be done with it…
In this video I'll be showing you how to build a beautiful desktop PC out of an old damaged laptop for peanuts (aka, not much money). This is a great way to ...
@silberfuchs @Hex maybe, but do they literally refuse to function as a regular-ass screen when one just hooks up some HDMI source and never gives them any network credentials?
- Cuz if I had that problem I'd return said screen for a refund!
@Hex @silberfuchs Yeah, cuz if you have no control over ambient light "pollution" nor a good projection surface, this ain't an option.
Plus even 10 years ago one could get a 1m diagonal 1080p60 TV for like € 299,-- whereas any decent projector that doesn't necessitate a pitch-black room and can span any decent area [5m+ diagonal] is gonna cost way more by nature of it's complexity and parts...
@Hex oh boy, this explains exactly what I see on our network at work.
Millions of IP addresses from global residential networks making exactly 1 request. With a human-looking, but old user agent header.
We had to implement a JavaScript cookie challenge for all users, which is sad but works.
@Hex
> with the user’s consent, turns their phone or smart TV into one of those exit nodes.
isn't there someone they forgot to ask?
Idk about other countries, but at least in Poland, ISPs typically forbid customers from "letting other people outside of customer premises use the service" in their ToS.
These proxies wouldn't exist if ISPs enforced their own ToS.
Also, why aren't we holding ISPs accountable for the relayed traffic?
@Hex
I am surprised by how easy it is to bypass a VPN on iOS!
"The SDK’s config ships a flag “use_netifs”: true. That flag triggers code in the SDK binary that constructs its NWConnection with a specific required interface: en0 (WiFi) or pdp_ip0 (cellular), rather than using the system default route.
On iOS, this bypasses any configured VPN’s tun0 interface entirely. The peer tunnel does not cross a user-configured VPN, even when the rest of the app’s HTTPS traffic does."
I should be the one watching the TV. It should not be watching back.
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