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LG SmartTV monitors your every move - including files on attached USB drives

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40hz:
You might have suspected some of this was going on. I certainly have.

But now here's LG definitively caught sending information gleaned about its set owners back to the mothership And doing so even though the hard to find opt-out option had been selected by the set owner. And to add further insult to injury, the data transmittals are unencrypted.

From the Techdirt article:

At this point, LG already has a bit of privacy problem. Sending data on channel selection is one thing. Collecting and sending unencrypted web data like search terms is quite another. And it gets even worse.

     It was at this point, I made an even more disturbing find within the packet data dumps. I noticed filenames were being posted to LG's servers and that these filenames were ones stored on my external USB hard drive.

DoctorBeet tested his hunch by mocking up an .avi file that would be immediately distinguishable from any other "normal" traffic. Plugging in a USB stick with the bait (Midget_Porn_2013.avi) into his TV, DoctorBeet soon saw data on his faux porn headed to LG's servers in unencrypted plain text. DoctorBeet (and his shocked wife) also watched his children's names being harvested from the file name of a Christmas video located on another connected drive
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Too long and detailed a report to summarize. So hie thee over to Techdirt to get the rest of this story. (Link here.)

 :huh:

rgdot:
This doesn't help of course but really even without stories like this never had any use for a smart tv. As of late 2013 it is still possible to buy big screen tv that are not 'smart', I suspect that will change....

MilesAhead:
I guess they don't call TV Screens "monitors" for nothing?   :P

40hz:
I guess they don't call TV Screens "monitors" for nothing?   :P
-MilesAhead (November 20, 2013, 11:56 AM)
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LOL! :Thmbsup:

Maybe they should just call them telescreens and be done with it?

Welcome to the Panopticon! :-\

MilesAhead:
I guess they don't call TV Screens "monitors" for nothing?   :P
-MilesAhead (November 20, 2013, 11:56 AM)
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LOL! :Thmbsup:

Maybe they should just call them telescreens and be done with it?

Welcome to the Panopticon! :-\
-40hz (November 20, 2013, 12:00 PM)
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Hehe.  If I remember right, Winston Smith had the advantage of no monthly cable bill.  Even Big Brother didn't expect him to pay to be monitored. :)

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