Samsung’s smart TVs have already come under fire this week for a poorly-worded privacy policy that apparently let the devices listen in on owners’ conversations. Now, there are reports that the sets are inserting ads “every 20-30 minutes” into users’ own, locally-stored content. There’s been a string of complaints online by customers using third-party video apps such as Plex and Australian service Foxtel, with most referring to rogue Pepsi ads interrupting their viewing. “After about 15 minutes of watching live TV, the screen goes blank, and then a 16:9 sized Pepsi ads (taking up about half the screen) pops up,” wrote a professed Samsung smart TV owner on Foxtel’s support forums. “It’s as if there is a popup ad on the TV.”
If you’re into Android, don’t buy Samsung. There are enough better alternatives.
Amen.
It’s… Pop-Corn Time, buddies !
LG does the same, and so will Panasonic.
Avoid SmartTVs like the plague. In fact, avoid TVs alltogether ….
Agreed.
NEC do a nice line of TV like monitors.
In fact, I use my TV as a big monitor. That’s ideal for me. I only wish the TV would turn off when the PC is off.
Look into this: http://www.pulse-eight.com/store/products/104-usb-hdmi-cec-adapter….
It allows to synchronize turning on and off the pc and tv. It is originally for HTPCs and it also sends events from your TV remote to your PC via HDMI-CEC.
You have to be kidding… You HAVE to be kidding.
Normally, consumers would avoid such devices at all costs. But this is the “average consumer” we are talking about.
So, this is the “new normal”?
Source?
Edited 2015-02-11 12:12 UTC
You can google around, but e.g. http://doctorbeet.blogspot.co.uk/ does tell quite a lot about LG.
It makes more sense for the original poster to search for a source than for each and every reader to do so. Duplication of effort and all that.
Except that often the original poster is gone for the day, and won’t see the question for many hours, during which the conversation goes on between other folk. If you happen to know already of something on the subject, it’s easy to pop in and let folks know while they wait to see if and when the OP will be back.
Specially when not even replying to my original message, so that I don’t get mail notifications. :/
Either way, http://www.avsforum.com/forum/167-plasma-flat-panel-displays/146312…
I’d love to get my hands on such a TV and see if I can provide relief to the users.
See, I’ve done a little bit of hacking on my home router to circumvent some ad and tracking activity comming from a previous generation of Samsung TVs.
Basically I’ve identified the domain names that the TV looks up first to serve ads or call home.
Then I went and configured dnsmasq on the router so that it responds with NXDOMAIN to things I prohibit as per my home policy.
The TV gets a response meaning domain not found and does not try to connect. Does not call home, does not show ads.
I suggest people research this apporach to circumvent the rogue ads. Perhaps with a milisecond break as it switches between content.
Of course the TV is not to be trusted and should be thrown away, but until you do that, some relief should be possible.
—
Dr. Pysiak
Edited 2015-02-11 16:49 UTC
Just blocking the addresses it tries to retrieve ads from is hardly hacking, it’s just basic network administration. Also, you didn’t say if you are also filtering outgoing data — just blocking incoming, ie. the ads, is often not enough, just like e.g. in the LG-story I linked to earlier.
I’ve been an owner of the Samsung Galaxy S3 phone for 2 years via Sprint. Sprint auto-opted me into a program that tracked my movements via GPS and saved the info on their servers. I stumbled upon this in an email. I was incensed when I wrote them the initial email and later during a phone call. Programs like this, I told them, should always be opt-in.
btw, This surveillance program was not advertised anywhere on their site (or at least, not easy to find). I only knew about it because it was vaguely listed on a promotional email I received from them.
I mention this because even if you decide to get a competitor’s phone, you still have to carefully monitor what the phone provider is doing. Their reasoning was that they could “stalk” me while I drive and make suggestions re: restaurants, etc.
Note also, after my interaction with Sprint, I stopped getting emails about any special programs. They essentially cut the flow of information.
Juste sue them.
I’m an owner of the Samsung Tab Pro 12.2″ tablet for about 6 months. I decided to register my tablet with Samsung soon after I got it. When I re-visited the site, I noticed that I was enrolled in something called “Samsung Nation”. By visiting pages, commenting, etc… I earned badges for participating in this social program. Problem was I never signed up for anything – I was just registering my tablet.
Over the years, I’ve gotten pretty good at reviewing checkboxes, small print, etc for additional services. Nothing like this appeared when registering my tablet.
The bigger problem was that my actual name was being used on ‘Samsung Nation’ and littered throughout the site. Basically, anywhere I went on the site was displayed publicly with points next to my (real) name. It took a while to find something called “publish activity” in order to disable the public tracking the site was doing on me.
I think my Tablet is pretty secure now and am usually very careful about the apps I download (permission-wise). I just don’t think I’d pick up anything Samsung-related in the future. I just don’t think Samsung gets it.
So Samsung is warning their customers to watch what they say in front of their tv now?
http://www.dw.de/samsung-admits-smart-tv-may-be-eavesdropping/a-182…
Where are the consumer rights groups? This shit is already out of hand and it’s barely gotten started.
Probably sitting at home in front of their new Samsung TVs. They’ll raise hell when one of them gets screwed by it, not before.
Samsung has crossed the line of acceptability. I will no longer be recommending any of their products or services.
Considering the fact that it is not Samsung’s property after you pay for it and that they are using your property to generate revenue, its time to get the lawyers on it. They are also using your bandwidth for profit, bandwidth that you pay for.