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Your smart TV Watching you. Well, it doesn’t exactly “monitor”, but it tracks what you watch and sells that data to other companies. They also do it in reverse, showing you ads based on what you’ve seen elsewhere. This is partly why you can search for something on Amazon, and then suddenly see ads for it on TV, on your phone, and on other websites.
Although this tracking is an unfortunate part of the modern internet, there are ways you can reduce it when it comes to your TV. there There are no good stupid consumer TVs anymore; everyone The best TVs They’re “smart” TVs, but you can make any smart TV dumber.
Before I dive in, it’s important to understand that no manufacturer wants you to do this. Many manufacturers make a significant amount of money selling your ad placements and data, sometimes more than you make from the TV itself. They don’t want you to part with their products for this reason, plus the simple fact that most people struggle with it He wants Connected TV. For manufacturers and most people, a TV “doesn’t work” if it’s not connected to the Internet. Fortunately, you have some options.
Separate or separate (easier said than done)
The easiest way to make your TV dumber is to just disconnect it from the Internet. There’s more to it than just pulling an Ethernet cable or revoking Wi-Fi privileges. If your TV has been connected to the Internet up to this point, it will likely start sending you notifications and warnings that it can’t connect. This may be a pop-up that can be easily ignored, it may be every time you turn on the TV or it may annoyingly insist on reconnecting to the Wi-Fi network – this will depend on the model and brand.
You may need to root your entire TV by resetting it to factory settings. This option will be buried deep in the settings. Before doing this, write down or take pictures of the image settings, as these will also disappear. If you have a TV that uses the Google or Android interface, see the Basic TV section below. Once you’ve rebooted your TV into factory new mode and progressed through the initial setup, just tell it that you don’t have internet, and skip this section entirely.
It’s worth noting that you’ll lose out on more than just annoying ads and access to built-in streaming apps. You probably won’t be able to cast from your phone to your TV, get firmware updates, and you certainly won’t be able to use any voice assistant/AI. You’ll have, essentially, just a display for whatever you’re connecting to via HDMI. More on that in a moment, but any features beyond that likely won’t work. If you’re reading this article, you’re probably thinking, “Good!” But I just want to make sure we’re all on the same page.
See also: Why am I asking people to stop looking for stupid TVs
The lack of firmware updates may not be a big deal. Most of these updates are either security patches (which won’t matter if you’re not connected to the Internet anyway) or to improve the performance or stability of various applications (which, again, you’re not using). You can also check if your TV manufacturer allows you to download the firmware to a USB drive, which can be used to update itself when connected to the TV.
If you’re particularly tech-savvy, there are also options you can do to block things on your internet router, such as Hole in meor even before that, like NextDNS. While neither option is expensive, they do require some setup and technical knowledge, so they’re beyond the scope of what I can go into here. However, if you want more granular control over what happens on your home network, including your TV, these options are worth considering.
Go basic
In the same way that your TV is restored to new condition out of the box, it is converted to basic TV mode. Many new models use Google or Android as their operating system, including those from TCL, Sony, Hisense and Others. If you’ve already set up your TV, you won’t be able to switch it to “mute” mode without a factory reset. As I mentioned above, during the setup process, you just choose your primary TV instead of signing in to your Google account. This will take you to a simplified version of the standard Google TV interface, where you can access settings, inputs, etc. It shouldn’t have asked you to connect to the internet at all, and hopefully it never will.
You can read more information about Google page on this topic. You can go back to being a smart TV at any time.
Disable certain features (hidden but not nuked)
If the above is too extreme, go to your TV’s settings and disable all tracking features. What your TV maker calls these features varies, and they’re often creatively named to hide their actual purpose. “Personalized recommendations” may seem harmless enough, but ask yourself, how do they collect information to make anything personalized? Automatic Content Recognition may seem like a picture quality feature, but it tracks what you watch and sells that data. The “Use information from TV inputs” option may seem like it’s just activating the HDMI inputs, but no, it tracks what you’re watching from external sources.
While some companies are better than others at this, they all do it to some extent. Search for your TV brand and “disable tracking” for a list of what to disable. Note that this is not as effective as disconnecting the TV from the Internet completely, but it will keep most of the Smart TV’s functions intact. A future firmware update may re-enable any of these settings or add more; Impossible to say.
Now what?
You’ve made your TV as stupid as possible. Now what do you do with it? Skipping streaming altogether is a reasonable, if expensive, option. The sad irony is that cable and satellite have become a cheaper option compared to subscribing to many streaming services, especially if you watch sports.
Alternatively, you can still purchase 4K Blu-ray playersAnd it’s inexpensive. Also, certain versions of major gaming consoles have 4K Blu-ray players. Ostensibly for copy protection reasons, all of these options will likely need to be connected to the Internet as well, at least sometimes. Yes, there is always something.
You can also switch to Free over-the-air broadcasting. This certainly won’t reduce the number of ads you see, but at least they will be generic and random. It’s likely an ad for some medical drug you’ve never heard of and can’t figure out what it does (if you live in the US, anyway).
It is worth noting that Many projectors It can be used without any Internet connection, although this would probably require rearranging the room where the TV is located. At the very least, you will need heavier curtains.
How about getting Streaming box or dongle? Good…
The problem is with streaming devices
If you, like most people, still want to stream shows and movies despite owning a dumb TV, you’re faced with a bit of a dilemma. Most devices that offer streaming apps also track everything, some even more than TVs. The services also follow themselves normally, but you might have expected that.
There are some options to reduce tracking. The first is — and as an Android guy, it pains me to say — Apple TV Tracks are usually much lower than other options, especially Roku. There’s no perfect streaming device option when it comes to data privacy, but Apple TV comes the closest while maintaining ease of use for the whole family.
If you don’t want to go the Apple TV route, check with your favorite streaming device to see which tracking features you can turn off. Find the device you’re using and “Privacy Settings” or “Disable Tracking.” Like your TV, there will likely be multiple settings to disable, and they may be creatively named.
In addition to covering audio and display technology, Jeff makes the photo tours From museums and amazing sites around the world, including Nuclear submarines, Aircraft carriers, Medieval castles,epic A 10,000 mile road trip And more.
Also see his books Budget travel for dummies and Best-selling science fiction novel About submarines the size of a city. You can follow it Instagram and YouTube.
