I remember trying to buy a TV that does not have "smart" functionality a few years ago. It was a chore. Today it seems impossible.
And not just TVs: ovens; refrigerators; dishwashers — all have "smart" options. In fact, it seems that more and more the available non-smart models are only the simpler ones, less performant in ways that are not related to any smart functionality missing.
My non-smart TV was available only with lower resolutions than "smart" models of the same brand.
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@rysiek All smart TVs are dumb if you never connect them to/block them from a network. Co-opt their alternative monetization schemes!
@timoj I don't trust software settings to respect my preferences. This has to be a hardware switch.
@rysiek There doesn’t *have* to be anything. The whole reason these things are so cheap now is that they monetize the consumption data you’re trying to stop them from collecting and willing users who choose cheap over privacy is practically the entire market for TVs now. They want you to work for it. Either airgap, prove it is so promiscuous in its mission to phone home with your data that it would willfully violate the CCPA or GDPR to do it and sue, or buy something old/a monitor.
@timoj or, you could read the thread till the end and see that I have a specific thing that I propose.
@rysiek I read the thread. The former isn’t commercially reasonable, as the data subsidizes the set, and the latter—a regulatory regime that protects you from unbridled personal data collection and allows you to buy a state of the art TV for next to nothing without sacrificing your privacy or security if you simply decline everything and airgap—already exists. Life is full of compromises.