At this point, you're probably pretty used to the idea that your smartphone tracks what you do and shares that information with various companies. It's a little depressing, but it's become a fact of life. However, what about your TV?
Smart TVs have been around for a while at this point, which means there's a good chance that there's an aging TV somewhere in your home that doesn't have the smarts to be a TV anymore.
LG TVs are facing scrutiny due to a video seemingly showing the devicesβ capability to track users when the TVs are off.
YouTube channel Gamers Nexus worked with Level1Techs, a technology-focused YouTube channel,Β and security researchers to analyze LG TVsβ tracking capabilities. They shared packet captures that pointed to the TVs, including LGβs pricey G5 OLED TV, scanning the LAN for other devices.
βThe [G5] crawled our entire network and found dozens of unrelated devices, including smartwatches and phones of our staff who didn't even know we were working on this,β Steve Burke, Gamers Nexus' editor-in-chief, said.
I recently hooked up an old PC to my TV, expecting it to be the perfect way to turn my living room into a makeshift gaming setup. The hardware was more than capable, and both the PC and TV supported the refresh rates I wanted, so I assumed everything would work without a hitch. Instead, I was greeted by constant stuttering, flickering, and occasional black screens that made the whole setup feel broken.
For a while, Roku felt like the one streaming platform that hadn't sold out. Ads were not invasive a few years ago, and the OS mostly stayed out of your way. If you've been a Roku user long enough to remember what that felt like, then you're probably disappointed with where the company is going. Roku is more than a way to start streaming, so it makes sense that the company wants more money. Unfortunately, it feels like we're just at the beginning.