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Posted by microcode 1 day ago

Nearly half of LG smart TV apps contain residential proxy SDKs(spur.us)
260 points | 169 commentspage 3
dupontcyborg 1 day ago|
this is a way smaller deal than acr. i personally don’t connect my smart tv to my network and use an apple tv instead
tulio_ribeiro 13 hours ago||
LG’s guidelines state:

- “Your app should only collect the minimum user data required for providing service and should avoid collecting unnecessary data.”

- “LG performs security reviews on submitted apps before distribution, using the vulnerability analyzing system.”

- “All app developers must complete and submit well-defined and comprehensible data safety information detailing collection, usage, and sharing of user data.” They explicitly classify the "IP address" under Device Identifier Information.

https://webostv.developer.lge.com/develop/guides/privacy-gui...

Blatant lies.

ortusdux 1 day ago||
Maybe Valve will make a TV next
wmf 1 day ago|
Palmer Luckey said he might make a ModRetro TV.
cj 1 day ago||
I imagine most smart TVs don't support multitasking or apps staying alive in the background, hopefully?
dotancohen 1 day ago||
Why would you imagine that? Which non-multitasking OS do you think these devices are based on?
cj 1 day ago|||
Specific to LG tvs:

https://webostv.developer.lge.com/develop/getting-started/ap...

dotancohen 22 hours ago||
Thank you. One of the app states mentioned is:

  > Suspended : The app is suspended in the background.
cj 21 hours ago||
And the next sentence says this:

> The app can be suspended for a short time

Short time, short lived, not long running.

That doesn't make it okay obviously, just means the blast radius is limited.

dotancohen 11 hours ago||
I disagree. All it takes is one questionable HTTP request for CP or terrorist related materials to begin an investigation. Or, heaven forbid, pirate a Metallica album.
cj 10 hours ago||
I agree with your disagreement. Even though I’m the one you’re disagreeing with.
tumdum_ 1 day ago|||
For example OS running on Amazon fire stick 4K kills your background processes after ~20 minutes.
microcode 1 day ago||
The consent screens say that they "may continue running in the background after you close the app".
doublerabbit 1 day ago||
Walked past a TV and it was advertising a security guard.

Why does a TV need security software?

dewey 1 day ago||
Because most people (HN is not a representative sample set) are not willing to pay the real price of a TV if it wouldn't be subsidized by adtech.
acheron 1 day ago|||
TVs were unsubsidized by ad tech up until 10 years ago, and I’m pretty sure most people bought TVs back then.
HDBaseT 1 day ago||||
I'm not sure the adtech is even enough to subsidize the price in a meaningful way.

Google’s global ad revenue equates to roughly $61 per user per year, most TV manufacturers would be unable to extract that much out per user, even with crazy levels of tracking, ads, etc.

I haven't used a modern TV in a very long time, but I can't imagine LG is extracting over $20 in ad revenue/data revenue per year. It might move the needle on <$500 displays, but when LG displays costing over $5,000 still have this spyware its hard to defend.

dewey 1 day ago|||
What makes you think LG would not be hitting the Google numbers (Instagram ad-free is ~$6 / month for example, roughly the same ballpark)? A device that's connected to a high speed internet connection, often allowed to do background tasks and being able to track all data being consumed through it (Streaming services, gaming etc.) is extremely valuable.
microcode 1 day ago||
Indeed, many of these TVs serve ads by default on their screensavers and home screens.
bigfishrunning 1 day ago||||
It's been a very long time since they were given an option.
pixelmelt 1 day ago|||
Aren't consumer class dumb TVs gone?
dewey 1 day ago||
Yes, that's kind of the point. If you have the choice between $500 black rectangle and $1000 black rectangle where the only difference is some boring privacy policy details most people will go with option 1.
wewtyflakes 23 hours ago||
The companies that make these TVs love that we are this point since they can now take away the subsidy, and you also coincidentally now have no option to buy a non-smart TV, so they are now collecting $ from both the purchase and from the ads. Tada! Grossness all around.
wmf 1 day ago||
Windows needs antivirus so why wouldn't a TV? Unfortunately there's a lot of placebo software out there.
wmf 1 day ago||
The concept of consent-based privacy has completely failed, first with GDPR then this.
refulgentis 1 day ago||
12 minute article.

70% AI.

The only content not flagged?

Copy and pasted PR comments.

Invisible Unicode characters, triads, unnecessary markdown.

Good work, obviated by bloviating. Readers dropping off near-instantly.

A company leaving a slop trail behind its wake.

AI DDOSing should be shameful.

https://www.folklore.org/Saving_Lives.html

jonhohle 1 day ago||
It’s exhausting. It’s like every article is written by the same author and that author is also your coworker and personal assistant and also moonlights as Brian, a waiter at Chotchkie’s.
duckfruit 1 day ago||
Exactly. This is like that Sci fi show where the whole world is taken over by an alien organism and everyone you meet is basically the same one person. The AI is also off-puttingly nice, just like the alien.
Retr0id 1 day ago|||
The page has scroll hijacking, too.
tantalor 1 day ago||
Here's a bookmarklet which fixes that:

  javascript:(function(){const e=['wheel','mousewheel','DOMMouseScroll','touchmove'];e.forEach(e=>{window.addEventListener(e,function(e){e.stopPropagation()},{capture:true,passive:true})});const t=e=>{if(!e)return;e.style.setProperty('overflow','auto','important');e.style.setProperty('overflow-y','auto','important');e.style.setProperty('overflow-x','visible','important');e.style.setProperty('scroll-behavior','auto','important');e.style.setProperty('position','static','important')};t(document.documentElement);t(document.body);const o=document.createElement('style');o.innerHTML='html, body { overflow: auto !important; overflow-y: auto !important; scroll-behavior: auto !important; position: static !important; height: auto !important; } ::-webkit-scrollbar { width: 12px !important; display: block !important; }';document.head.appendChild(o);})();
kristianp 23 hours ago|||
Yes very LLM (Chatgpt?) style, short sentences e.g.:

    "The app goes away. The proxy does not."
    "The app is the wrapper. The residential IP is the product."
Headers are very chatgpt style too: "Why this is dangerous"

The information in the article is valid and they've done the work to get the data, but the LLM style is irritating.

duckfruit 1 day ago||
Yeah, wading through an endless stream of AI slop articles posted here (and elsewhere like on reddit) is exhausting. I suspect I won't be coming here as often anymore, which is a shame, because I used to find this site very informative and engaging.

Though we've always had our fair share of marketing and growth hack posts this turn with AI is just a different level of frustrating. The dead internet theory is unfortunately very real.

knollimar 1 day ago||
This feels straight out of Silicon Valley (show)
bigfishrunning 1 day ago|
It also feels straight out of Silicon Valley (place)
72027372920 22 hours ago||
[flagged]
nekusar 1 day ago|
LOL I posted a few days ago with bullshit from LG smart TVs.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48618246

I still do not know how the damned thing got internet.