Spur scanned 6,038 LG and Samsung smart TV apps and found 2,058 with residential proxy SDKs, exposing privacy and home network risks.
  • CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    26·
    1 day ago

    Consumers do not have the technical knowledge required to make an informed decision about these products. They don’t have the technical ability required to block the TV from the internet. They don’t know how to filter the internet access so that Netflix works but the botnet doesn’t.

    If our regulators and politicians were doing their jobs, consumers wouldn’t have to understand firewalls, DNS, and CDNs.

    • FineCoatMummy@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      7·
      21 hours ago

      Consumers do not have the technical knowledge required to make an informed decision

      I’m battling with a friend. He bought a new smart TV. He’s all enthused about the cool features from putting it on his n/w. I’m trying to explain why that is a bad idea. It’s very hard. He’s a non-techie. He just doesn’t get the dangers. To be fair, TVs didn’t used to have surveilence baked in them! Or semi backdoors. Also to be fair, TVs shouldn’t be hostile!

      IDK if I can reach him. But I see, the avg consumer has no hope. They do not have ANY sense of tech safety or danger. These are the same folks that years ago happily clicked on TotallyNotMalwareTrustMeBro.jpg.exe. Asking them to navigate all this is a losing battle.

      • pdxfed@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        18 hours ago

        There is a reason why medicine is setup to have experienced people guide the uninformed; we can’t all go to medical school. The complexity of tech is no less than that field but because modern tech unfortunately largely developed in a no-holds-barred US capitalist violence machine against the average person, they have few advocates, little visibility and almost no recourse.

        • FineCoatMummy@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          2·
          17 hours ago

          There is a reason why medicine is setup to have experienced people guide the uninformed;

          Or at least it used to be. Before social media made everybody think they know better than ppl with like 8 entire ass years of post graduate education. Valuing expertise was nice while it lasted, tho.

          But yah. Tech is also highly complex. And fraught with peril. At least in medicine, docs normally want the best for their pts. In tech, most want to take advantage. To collect personal info. Or lock them into an ecosystem. For every time ppl hear “that’s a bad app, use this instead” they hear 20 times “this is the hot new app the cool kids are all using.” And that hot new app is designed to be addictive AF.

          IDK how to fight that.