[mcrae]

Don't believe that using an external device helps -- the TV can detect what content is being played by sampling the video stream and creating a fingerprint. They can compare to live tv streams to detect channels, and static video files to detect movies/tv shows -- even the menus and cutscenes in video games can be detected.

Also note that disabling WiFi isn't always helpful - some devices expose ethernet over HDMI which the TV will use to phone home.

[aulin]

> some devices expose ethernet over HDMI

wait, is this really a thing? I've heard about hdmi over ethernet, but ethernet over hdmi? also it seems it would be a lot trouble to bridge the wifi connection and dhcp to this ethernet over hdmi interface, why should they do it?

[LASR]

Yes.

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI#HDMI_Ethernet_and_Audio_R...

[ziml77]

Using Ethernet to communicate between the connected devices doesn't mean that either device is acting as a router to send packets beyond that direct link.

[aulin]

TIL! doesn't seem it really gained any popularity though to be really a security concern

[SkyPuncher]

When Shazam was popular, I believe they embedded digital fingerprints in the non-audible ranges of the audio stream. That allowed phone apps to quickly label content.

I suspect a similar thing happens with video content.

[president]

Source? I couldn't find information on any mainstream TV brands using ethernet over HDMI. Not configuring wifi and using an external device seems like it would do the trick.

[MAGZine]

time for hdmi condoms, I guess.