> But they typically cost way more.

Yes, because the price is not subsidized from the selling of personal information.

> “The business model is shifting away from making money on TV sets and instead to making money on ads and data that is delivered by those TV sets,” said Paul Gray, Omdia’s Research Director, Consumer Electronics and Devices, at last week’s HbbTV Symposium in London.

* https://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2024/11/18/tv-companies-sell...

This is just made up. Spectre sells TVs that do not have any smart features and they do not cost any more than similarly sized TVs.

Where do you buy those? Searching tells me that Sceptre has no stock.

https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/1wbjk0o/sceptre_tv...

The Amazon and Walmart links given on Sceptre's product pages don't link to any televisions. Example: https://www.sceptre.com/TV/4K-UHD-TV/U515CV-UMRDD-50-4K-UHD-...

> Yes, because the price is not subsidized from the selling of personal information.

No, it's because their target is businesses which aren't so sensitive to price and like the extended warranty that comes with.

Yes, a common response is not to connect to WiFi, but I'm not 100% persuaded that it's a good answer. I don't connect my Kindle or some medical equipment to WiFi, but somehow they both (possibly Over The Air tech) are shared with the companies. Also, Amazon Sidewalk shares my bandwidth with others nearby against my stated wishes.

Are they shipping TVs with that capability, though? I understand a medical device needing cellular in case wifi goes down, but would they go through that effort for a TV?

Then, someone's going to say that TVs could be automatically connecting to open Wi-Fi networks. I don't think that's a thing any more. I haven't seen any open Wi-Fi networks around me in a long time.

I'd love for a TV to include a 4G/5G connection that they pay for; it'll be hacked for free Internet before the first production run leaves the store shelves.

Problem is that they have wifi chips that will scan and connect to cell phones. The TV manufacturers have agreements with the cell providers for open wifi services on all their phones so you can't block it unless you live in the middle of nowhere and even that may change with LEO satellite service.

I opened up my LG TV because I saw it doing aggressive wifi scanning even when the wifi was "disabled" and physically removed the antenna wire and wrapped the whole guts in RF blocking foil.

I’m sorry what? There are phone network providers that pump out your phone’s wifi and data connection without telling you?

I’m not sure I believe you? (Not that I can’t believe a company would do something dodgy behind your back, but I just don’t think our phones would go that far off piste - opening a wifi network has battery power implications that I think would have been discovered/widely known before(

Is there any source you can actually cite for the cell phone bit…?

I believe you on the aggressive WiFi scanning but I’d have to see concrete proof about the phone part to believe it. Draining users phone batteries via WiFi hotspot functionality that the phone doesn’t even show to the user would be a very big deal.

I don't know if they do it either, but if they use hashes they are in no way draining the battery of someone's phone to send a few bytes every so often. That's not me saying it's okay, mind you.

I've told myself if they start putting 5G in TVs I would either glue a faraday mesh to the back or open up the TV and ground out the antenna or remove the WiFi chip if possible.

If they would keep the spying to matching my shows with programs that are being aired or on popular streaming services, sports, or whether I mute the commercials, that wouldn't bother me. Screen grabs would , especially if I use it on my computer. But history has shown this starts off benign and eventually devolve into listening to the room at all hours and keeping it forever in a Bluffdale data center because "think of the children" / "national security".

"Your device of choice" is not a solution. Your device of choice is still "spying on your" per the definitions provided here.

THey have microphones and listen to conversations while transcribing the words to listen for "wake words". THey are in fact always awake, and transcribing the words they hear.

They all send telemetry and usage data and they all scan for devices in your home and SSIDs.

The only difference is that you think you can trust these devices vs the TVs which use ACR.

I dont see much of a difference here.