Televisions Have Become Billboards
An electric appliance for presenting large and vocal ads inside rooms all year long (and there's some "content" to keep the target/s of the ads within sight)
Published in Gemini only hours ago (very timely, not a catalyst for this article though): Why are modern televisions so cheap?
OK, this should have been obvious. Modern, "smart" TVs -- and they're all "smart" these days -- are just like smartphones with much larger screens. If smartphones are surveillance devices, there's no reason TVs should be any different. All modern TVs are based on a software platform provided by one of the tech giants: my daughter's is an Amazon Fire device, but there are similar offerings from Google and others.
All these platforms spy on their users in a variety of ways. They all record what channels you watch, when, and for how long. They record what external services you use, to do what. Since they all have voice control capabilities, they can record your voice. Some even have built-in cameras.
Oh, yes, cameras. Stay tuned...
How much can 5 years of monitoring and blasting ads into a household be "monetised"?
Cultural 'Shift'
For nearly a year now I have patiently and cautiously observed what "modern" so-called 'Telescreens' or 'Televisions' (TVs) are like, what they do, how they're operated, and how they operate (active, not passive). I have commented on that in passing in the past (many relevant links in Daily Links as well) and I recognise that many forums online deem it a hot topic this month. There's anger because of old revelations reaching an unprecedented size of audience (maybe a billion people).
Not an "LG Issue"
A lot of the blame is directed towards South Korea's LG, even if the counterparts do (almost) the same if not worse. Similarly, many are angry about "Flock" even if GAFAM do worse things; so getting rid of "Flock" and cancelling "Flock" contracts won't solve the underlying issues.
We must discuss the concepts, not the brands, the issues, not the people accountable. The latter would distract from the information we can educate people about so as to raise awareness, grow effective resistance, maybe even boycotts.
History of Corruption
So yesterday we mentioned the price-fixing cartel of LG and Samsung (and others), which both distribute Linux-based TVs (e.g. Tizen and WebOS) that spy on their viewers (or mere subjects being viewed rather). The cartel involving 'flatscreens' should be enough to arouse suspicion; Samsung is a very corrupt company (a chief arrested for it) and contrary to happy K-Pop faces, the country is rife with corruption, suicides (mental health crisis), and constant risk of war (even from within, that's why the head of state is going to jail). Both North Korea and South Korean are notorious for mass surveillance, sometimes more extreme than anything we ever see in Europe and North America. Ask people who live there or visited there. Hotel rooms are booby-trapped with beacons, even in toilets. I spoke to people who visited and saw that.
The KCIA, National Intelligence Service (South Korea), is no KPOP, it's a branch of the army more or less.
As for Samsung, we used to cover its corruption a great deal almost 2 decades ago. I have a 'soft spot' for Samsung because my father used to work with them; despite that, due to its patent deal with Microsoft, we spent years calling for a boycott against Samsung and Bada (just because some appliance uses Linux does not mean it is benign or freedom-respecting).
Scope of This Commentary
Nobody outside the vendors (such as Samsung) knows just how bad the spying is and the trajectory is "upwards" so anything we heard or someone (like an insider) knew last year is already outdated. I'd be worse by now. Almost always.
This means the inconclusiveness or the missing part is how much worse it has gotten. And even without microphones and cameras - a subject for another day - LG is under fire for shipping hundreds of millions of "smart" TV sets that 1) try to connect to nearby devices to collect data (i.e. to spy on viewers) 2) spy even while disconnected/offline (to can relay data in both directs later, once connected again or once in contact with a nearby 'courier' like a "Smart" device with or without 'apps').
This is their notion of "innovation". It is a function of data collection and retention. In perpetuity.
"You Get What You Pay For"
Despite being a Microsoft talking point, I recently was told the same about washing machines and other home appliances. There's logic behind the pricing, which is 'engineered' to hide the real cost and the harsh reality.
To be clear, these "modern" sets are subsidised because they exist to serve advertisers or to serve ads to viewers.
Don't be offended by this. This is the reality. Get used to it. Or stop buying that.
As for longevity, they typically don't last long (barely 5 years) because of the materials and joinings in use. They cannot feasibly last long and because of the subsidies they are cheaper to "replace" (buy again, buy another 'disposable' one) than to repair.
It's Not in the Stream, It's Deeper Inside
Ads and spying are done at a level of the TV firmware, not the channels being viewed (or both). This is really abhorrent spying as it cannot be easily detected or effectively bypassed (using old and traditional methods). In some cases, your presence is checked and there can be (like in YouTube) "proof of presence". It's proprietary and they can outlaw/block 'circumvention'.
And that's before we even talk about voice (microphones that spy on conversations) and cameras that do a lot more than just study who's in front of the TV and what he/she/they do/say.
For more information on what Samsung does with a microphones in TVs (while on or even when the TV is turned off), take a look at how the US (CIA) accesses that data. Vault 7 from Wikileaks (search page for "vault 7", lots in there) is nearly a decade old, so this gives a mere glimpse at what a South Korean company did a long time ago. We can safely assume it has gotten a lot worse since then.
This is "Weeping Angel":
Notice it implicates the UK as well. To quote: "The classification marks of the User Guide document hint that is was originally written by the British MI5/BTSS and later shared with the CIA. Both agencies collaborated on the further development of the malware and coordinated their work in Joint Development Workshops."
It's not limited to any one country. They share the back doors, exploits etc.
The vendors are passively if not actively complicit most of the time.
The incentive to plug the holes is not there.
There is no such thing as an "air-gapped" TV remote when companies compel people to use "Smart" phones (always connected to antennas) as de facto "remote controls" and the buttons on the TV, if any exist, are almost unusable, not just because they're far from the sofa or chair or whatever.
In my hands-on experience, some very cutting-edge so-called 'modern' TVs have only one single button, "the power button" (which can double up/down as menu navigator with dual mode, where presses are classified by the length/duration of the press - not an easy thing to teach/learn). To change a channel to an adjacent channel, e.g. from 455 to 456, it can take 10 seconds (it also takes a long time for channels to 'load', so 'flicking' hardly works), compared to tenths of a second with an "old" TV and if you think of significantly increasing/decreasing volume or skipping past 100 channels, be prepare to spend up to a minute with the 'onboard' menu for a simple operation (it's too easy to 'miss' the desired channel due to acceleration). It's like that famous parody about iPods and iThings, published 2 decades ago by The Onion.
Is this some kind of a joke? No, they pretend that removing buttons makes things better. Primitivism and minimalism are not the same thing. They just 'torture' people who reject gadgets.
Someone has told me that "the 'digibox' (attached to [what] we have) is expensive and it still has a microphone" in present time/s. We got told we need to link to "Louis Rossmann's rants exposés from a few years ago about his TVs" [1, 2, 3].
We're hardly the first to talk about those things, but most sites leave out Vault 7 and other suppressed tidbits (the leaker/whistleblower got arrested for it).
It's a Cancer That Passes Between Rooms
There are no visible boundaries. It's a wireless "experience". Surveillance is "in the air".
For the 'modern' TVs, if they connect to nearby devices such as "Smart" watches and "Smart" so-called 'phones' they might get access to heart pulse, browsing history, and who knows what else. Apparently there also also many "Smart" sex toys these days, with Wi-Fi and/or Bluetooth.
Enjoy your "Smart" TV.
It Used to be Easier and Better
When I grew up in the 80s TV were more reliable (streams of data had no interruption or lag), more useful, easier/simpler to operate, and they could last several decades.
We could watch many channels, use a remote with many buttons (those are faster to operate, fewer buttons mean more steps needed for each task), and not worry about what data a TV constantly hoards; it didn't send data "back" to anywhere unless you had a Nielsen Box or something similar.
Bottom line: you get what you pay for (I am fully aware that "you get what you pay for" is also a Microsoft talking point and wrong a lot of the time), but in this case it relates to subsidies and planned obsolescence. Remember this. If the TV seems "cheap" or at least "affordable", then the product may be you. █
Image source: Emblem of the National Intelligence Service of South Korea
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