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realityfactchex | on: Ask HN: Which TV do you recommend for privacy?
First of all, open the TV and disconnect the wireless radio from the main board, on mine (Samsung) it was just unplugging one cable (AI or Google it). I dislike doing stuff like that, but it was easy in my case, maybe you'll be lucky, too.

Second, never use the "apps" built into the TV.

Next, don't plug Ethernet into the TV. Plug HDMI cables into the TV.

Use a box of your choice on the other end of the HDMI cables. This is now the box that you trust. (Roku? Shield? Blu-ray? MacBook? PC? Linux? Playstation? XBox? Whatever you want.)

The Smart TV itself is now fine. Choose the devices you plug into it to play content. The TV just shows it.

bscphil | parent | next
The thing I'd be worried about when doing this is spending $1000+ on a TV, then realizing it has some sort of pre-downloaded ads that it shows on the main screen ("sign up for your free six months of HBO Max!") or otherwise has a nag prompt that appears to tell you to connect to WiFi. I think that would be basically intolerable.
ericrallen | root | parent | next
Been a few years since I had to get a new one, but I booted mine up, switched to the HDMI input for my AppleTV, and never looked back. Just boots straight into the AppleTV input when you use the AppleTV remote to wake it up.

We have to use the actual TV remote to debug some audio issues or disable the motion blur stuff again every once in awhile, but otherwise it might as well just be a display for the AppleTV. I’ve only seen the actual home screen of the TV a handful of times.

I guess it’s probably still spying on us somehow, and it seems like different models make using the AppleTV remote and booting right into the AppleTV harder than others, so your mileage may vary.

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simulator5g | root | parent | next
That hasn't been my experience so far.
MrDrMcCoy | root | parent | next
If its an Android TV, you can use an alternate launcher to avoid home screen ads.
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drnick1 | parent | next
> First of all, open the TV and disconnect the wireless radio from the main board

This. Never trust software switches. See my other reply for what I suggest instead of "streaming boxes" that aren't any better than the TV firmware.

kazinator | root | parent | next
So you think that if the TV doesn't have your Wi-Fi password, it surreptititously turns on Wi-Fi and runs cracking software to obtain it anyway?
ethanj8011 | root | parent | next
I think the more logical concern would be that it would wait until it could find any potential unsecured wifi to use. I live in an apartment building and there a few wifi access points that I can reach from my apartment with no security. Though one of them appears to be an air conditioner??
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wl | root | parent | next
Not that I have any evidence it's happening, but it'd be more likely for TV manufacturers to partner with ISPs that offer public WiFi using the access points they rent to their customers.
wolvoleo | root | parent | next
No but things like Amazon sidewalk exist
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jellobyte | root | parent | next
Thank you. This is exactly what I was thinking reading people who think you need to do more than simply never connect it to your wifi.
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mmooss | root | parent
There are available IoT networks it could use, though I don't think all of them run over Wifi.
intrasight | root | parent
Honest question. Do projectors also suffer?
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aDyslecticCrow | root | parent | next
Faar less. A larger fraction of projectors remain dumb HDMI to light converters. Tis been my own plan if i settle on wanting a tv.
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kazinator | parent | next
> disconnect the wireless radio from the main board

Can you explain why you can't just not give the TV your Wi-Fi password?

Or are we worried about the case when the TV did have Wi-Fi (due to it being mandatory for some initial setup, say), but we don't trust that "Forget Network" and "Wi-Fi off" are actually honored?

Suppose the device surreptitiously reconnects to Wi-Fi in spite of being told to forget it. You may be able to block it in your router and failing that, change the access point password.

No?

gumby | root | parent | next
Xfinity runs an open WiFi for its customers. If you instead their gateway and don’t change anything (which is 99% of users) any Xfinity customer can get online. Several of my neighbors have them, and you can’t walk around in my commercial district without seeing the “Xfinity WiFi” SSID. It would be smart for TV mfrs to do a deal with Xfinity and their equivalents world wide in order to sell viewer data to advertisers and receive “fresh” ads, even if the TVs are excluded from the residential network.
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shdjhdfh | root | parent | next
People believing even without proof that TVs connect to open WiFi. This would be trivial to prove if true, yet there is no evidence. In addition, it doesn’t make any sense for any of them to bother. 99% of consumers willingly connect their TV to WiFi because they want to use it with the built-in streaming apps. It wouldn’t make any sense for them to waste time capturing the 1% of users most likely to be evade them anyway just to cause a PR and/or legal fiasco.
hedora | root | parent | next
Our Samsung fridge will mesh network with any Samsung TV specifically to exfiltrate marketing info, at least according to the manual. (The fridge even has marketing surveillance cameras in it).

I assume at some point, appliance manufacturers will start "partnering" with things that actually need WiFi for exfiltration purposes. Phones would be a good place to start.

That way, we'd need to either Faraday cage our friends' phones, not invite them over, or send marketing pervs video feed of our moldy pickles.

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realityfactchex | root | parent | next
To prevent RF transmission.
plagiarist | root | parent | next
We're worried about it connecting to a neighbor's unsecured network or some sort of unpublished mesh capability for exfiltrating your data and downloading ads.
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Tyr42 | root | parent
It might connect to a neighbor's WiFi if it has no password.
femto | parent | next
HDMI has an Ethernet channel

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI#HEC

Any chance the TV can phone home via that? One would have to make sure the HDMI cable physically doesn't have the Ethernet pairs, or set the trusted box to filter the traffic.

wtallis | root | parent | next
The HDMI standard defines an Ethernet channel as an optional feature. Approximately zero consumer products have ever implemented it. There's no need to worry about an unsuspecting consumer having supporting devices at both ends of the cable.
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sporedro | root | parent | next
I don’t know of any consumer laptops or tv boxes like shield/Apple TV that implement that so that. It’s basically a non-issue unless it’s implemented on the HDMI devices.
b112 | root | parent
If you use something you can control, like a Linux box, this isn't an issue. Even if the device did get added, and then udev or network manager auto configured, a firewall script should protect you.
Fnoord | parent | next
So, I have an Nvidia Shield TV Pro. I dislike how Google had to put ads on the homescreen (ads which are not suitable for my children), and I just checked: it has Android patch level Jan 2026. It is, as of today, Nov 2026. 10 months without patches. So no patch for eMudhra, no patch for Brotli, and you name it.

Other than that, I agree regarding TV, with one caveat: you might want to update the firmware right away, or at some point. The device might need to phone home for that. In order to achieve that, you can put up a temp WLAN AP with your smartphone.

With regards to my STB: I am considering cancelling all my subscription services and simply downloading everything to my NAS. This already runs Jellyfin. Then all I need is a Jellyfin client and HDMI. Perhaps a RPi 4 or RPi 5 would be suffice there.

OptionOfT | root | parent
I use ProjectTV as an alternative launcher. No ads.
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zoeysmithe | parent | next
While practical advice its just odd to me there's no major legislation or movement or activism or boycotts about this. We just accept our TV might be silently recording everything we say in our home and the fix is to not plug it into the internet.
hedora | root | parent
Remember this when you vote. A progressive swing is coming, and if we will ever regain privacy rights, it'll be when the next swing hits.
pier25 | parent | next
> disconnect the wireless radio from the main board

Why?

sudonem | root | parent | next
Even if you never connect the TV to your WiFi network it will constantly scan for public networks and also scan for any devices that will respond. “Off” doesn’t actually mean off anymore. :(
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kazinator | root | parent
Why would I care that some device to which I never gave a shred of my personal information of any kind (e.g. not logging it into any online account) found an open public network that I don't use and that has no connection to me?

Sure, I would be disturbed that it's doing that sort of thing in spite of Wi-Fi being explicitly turned off.

What is the threat to me though?

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mmooss | root | parent | next
They have your location, and can detect your interests from what you watch, and fingerprint you. Things like this are pieces of a larger, comprehensive picture of your life.

Also, how do you pay for streaming channels, etc., if you don't give it any information?

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kortilla | root | parent | next
Samsung TVs were literally recording people with microphones and doing voice recognition. Unless you don’t speak in your home, it will have you identified quite quickly.
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arcanemachiner | root | parent | next
So your idiot brother doesn't connect your spy TV to the WiFi when he comes to visit, instead of using the goddamn Chromecast that is already plugged into it. >:(
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MiscCompFacts | root | parent | next
I’ve heard the TV’s will try to connect to any passwordless, public access point it can reach even without your approval.
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OtomotO | root | parent
I guess for people living in cities where different neighbours move in and out and have open WiFis.

If the devices still scan all the time...

Living on the countryside there is no such problem.

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vexed_vulpine | parent | next
unfortunately ethernet capable hdmi exists
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sublinear | parent
> Use a box of your choice on the other end of the HDMI cables. This is now the box that you trust. (Roku? Shield? Blu-ray? MacBook? PC? Linux? Playstation? XBox? Whatever you want.)

If they choose a Firestick or Roku what's the difference? XD