Its an old LG, but given the recent light on the lengths they’ll go to spy on us, I figured this guy was better off without any ability to even connect wirelessly. Don’t know if the Ethernet still works but I plan on keeping my TVs as dumb as possible, HDMI only.
If you’re wondering how to open lg TVs you just have to remove all the screws then start pulling open at the bottom and open the clips going up. With the TV face down on a soft surface just keep pulling on the back case from the bottom, it’ll take some effort to pop open. The top edge folds open more like a hidge than clips.
A friend of mine’s household got a smart tv with speech commands. They didn’t really understand why I didn’t like. The kicker? They’re also somewhat paranoid about government and corporate overreach, but not to the extent that they’ll do anything.
The most conspiratorially minded are also the most likely to miss the obvious.
During COVID lockdowns, while I worked retail, a few customers didn’t want to use the QR codes to “check in” to the store because “tracking”, but then used digital contactless payment without a thought.
Do you have a phone? Does it have a hard cutoff for the GPS and mic?
Edit: damn! Y’all are sensitive about your larping.
C’mon, it’s common sense that you should not take your phone on demos and the like.
Oh, I didn’t realize that “going to a friend’s house” was code for “full black ops shit”. If that’s the case, yeah I’d be pretty pissed too if I went over and everyone left their cells behind and the Wi-Fi was turned off and we went into the dampening room and there was a smart TV playing South Park hanging on the wall.
I didn’t pick up that was what was happening at all. Thank you for the heads up.
They can track it with the antennas right? Less accurate but no need for more.
Within 150 - 1,500 feet at absolute best (high density urban environments) and up to a couple of miles out in the sticks. Very different than within a few feet for GPS.
You’re right though, if you want to go completely out of sight, you need a physical disconnect for the cell antenna too, or the battery.
I’m just saying that if you’re worried about your TV listening, you might want to think about the hot mic attached to a pinpoint tracker that you keep in your pocket.
I don’t speak freely near my phone and I have the bare minimum of 1st party apps in it. I was trying to get my PinePhone working, but that didn’t pan out.
Smart. I wish there were options to the spyphones.
It’s really strange though that your friends would be security conscious enough that y’all keep your phones locked away when hanging out, but not conscious enough to opt out of buying the spy TV. I guess with so many attack vectors it’s easy to focus on a few, and forget about the others. Giving us a false sense of security. I’m sure that’s by design.
Also public wifi, ever connected to a major provider of public access? They know who you are now, and they can log the connection attempts your phone ‘helpfully’ makes for you.
If they really wanted to, they could determine your travel history using the accelerometer.
Those little accelerometers have drift. It might work for a few miles, but eventually it’s going to be off by a significant margin. Plus, if the entity tracking you has your accelerometer history, you’re already pretty fucked, regardless if they can track it or not.