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gumby | on: Ask HN: Which TV do you recommend for privacy?
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.
crazybLanKeT | parent | next
This is actually so very doable in US, cutting deal with those like XFinity.

But if the TV manufacturer is smart in their spying game, they could also be probing for any public SSIDs to connect to when no local internet access is setup.

solyin | root | parent | next
Why make it so complicated? Just include an IoT cell modem with an esim.
kotaKat | root | parent
They don't have to cut direct with the operator. They can go up a little higher in the chain to a global "wifi offload" operator like Wefi.

https://www.wefi.com/wifi-offload

Then they can just get Passpoint access through a shitton of various endpoints.

giancarlostoro | parent | next
So your TV just connects to random wifi networks? That sounds a bit insane.
zargon | root | parent | next
That example isn't a random wifi network, it's the Xfinity network.

But also, you think tv manufacturers are sane? They have proven that they don't deserve the benefit of the doubt, in my opinion.

RajT88 | root | parent
It doesn't sound insane, actually. Keeping in mind, Windows XP did exactly that for a while until everyone realized, "hey, that's a security issue". I would swear MacOS too, but I wouldn't bet money on it.
Hamuko | parent | next
>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.

Doesn't exactly sound like a thing to be that concerned about if you never plug in your TV. If you buy a TV right now and never plug it in, how would it know about any future deal with Xfinity to connect to its open networks? And if it had a feature to connect to random open Wi-Fi networks right now, that wouldn't be hard to prove. My LG has never shown up in my Wi-Fi client list despite my open guest Wi-Fi. You can even test it by naming your guest network "Xfinity WiFi".

Taking apart your TV and pulling out the wireless radio sounds like absolute overkill to me. Feel free to do it if it makes you feel better. It will definitely not allow it to send data (over Wi-Fi) under any circumstance. I'm just not convinced that the alternative is that much riskier.

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