Regulation should not be used to override clearly demonstrated consumer preferences or to force companies to produce products that few people want.
The first thing we need to do to have productive conversations about privacy with non-technical people is to stop pretending they are ignorant or unable to understand trade-offs. People know that their online activity is tracked. They know that their Alexa devices record their conversations. All of this has been on the news enough times that you'd need to be living in a cave to be unaware of it.
People know this, and they have chosen to purchase these devices anyway. Maybe it's not because they are stupid and need the state to protect them -- maybe they are capable of evaluating trade-offs and their choices ought not to be second-guessed by people who think they know better.
If they'd be presented a bill of what they're being overcharged through better targeting, ads, etc., the same way activity trackers show how many steps a user takes, things might change.
What I'd disagree is that people choose to purchase the device anyway, a non-tech-savy user will hardly get presented a non-smart device, wouldn't even know to search for this.
I think regulation should at least let you turn off features, e.g. it should be possible to use Airplay and turn off the app store the tv uses.
The article has convinced me to do exactly that and finally get a pfsense router to make the pihole more effective. I'll (try to) only allow each device to run the services I really want it to run. I doubt my partner, siblings, parents, etc. would be able to do that though, this needs a simple pfsense/pihole combo that runs well out of the box or regulation to protect consumers.
And then those same people complain about folks who won't vaccinate their kids, saying they're being selfish.
Without realizing they're doing exactly the same thing.
They are ignorant. They do not understand the trade-offs.
That's good though! If you are one of the people who wants a dumb TV, congratulations! You get to benefit from lower TV prices, subsidized by all the other people who are buying smart TVs for the smart features. Just don't connect your new TV to your network, don't try to use the smart features, and pretend it's a dumb TV. It works fine.
Even DNS over HTTPS? Do you do packet inspection? Just blocking ports doesn't do much any more. I run an IDS/IPS and it blocks lots of DoH to Google. Apple devices are even worse.
1. Redirect all outbound DNS traffic to your own local DNS server (as described in the link in this post) 2. Return NXDOMAIN for well-known DoH domains [1] (as well as "use-application-dns.net" for well-behaving software like Firefox [2]) 3. Block traffic to well-known DoH providers by destination IP address [1]
[1] https://github.com/bambenek/block-doh [2] https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/configuring-networks-di...
I mentioned Mikrotik previously - I use them myself.
Roku? Where the CEO outright said that they aren’t in the hardware business and they are trying to monetize via ads?
Google? Need I say more
Amazon Fire devices? See above with Google
AppleTV? Sure I have a couple. They aren’t trying to monetize with advertising. But the HN crowd is anti-Apple.
Kodi running on a Pi or some other low power computer is probably HN-friendly, although the usability isn't even close to as good as the Apple TV.
As far as usability, look at all of the comments mentioning hacks solutions instead of just ordering a commercial product and plugging it in.
I went one step further with my parents. I just bought them a Roku TV and called it a day.
You can also chromecast and airplay pretty smoothly as well.
1. Not join them to our networks 2. Stop buying 'Smart TV's' 3. Get panels and a smart box that you can control
I'm lucky enough to be able to direct ALL DNS through my router first. Nothing gets out without my say so. Not everyone has that capability, sadly, with home routers.
The solution provided by the OP is a solid one - another would be to purchase a decent router (such as a Mikrotik) and learn how to use it - much more powerful device for the same price, or sometimes lower, as a regular 'home' router.