[rcme]

These types of devices are increasingly leveraging mesh networks to connect to the internet even if they're aren't explicitly connected by the owner. Simply not connecting your device to the internet isn't as reliable as it once was.

[ipython]

I keep hearing this but haven’t seen proof of this happening. Curious to see if this is reality yet.

[daveoc64]

They are just as likely to use telepathy to upload data via superintelligent owls.

There's no evidence of Smart TVs connecting in this way.

[jbm]

Is there a documented instance where this happened?

I've heard of this but I've never actually seen this in person. A google, ddg, and even a leddit search doesn't bring up anything.

[mmh0000]

Amazon Sidewalk[1] is one of the big players in this area. They've recently announced a partenership wwith Panasonic[2]/.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Sidewalk/b?ie=UTF8&node=213281...

[2] https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/devices/amazon-ces-2023-ann...

[judge2020]

Haven't seen a TV manufacturer implement it yet, but

> , Sidewalk can help simplify new device setup, extend the low-bandwidth working range of devices to help find pets or valuables with Tile trackers, and help devices stay online even if they are outside the range of their home wifi.

https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Sidewalk/b?ie=UTF8&node=213281...

[ianburrell]

Amazon Sidewalk uses BLE for short distances and LoRa for long distances. LoRa is seriously low bandwidth. The highest is 50 kb/s and that is for the shortest range and all users. BLE is higher bandwidth but requires having an Amazon device as gateway.

[SenAnder]

10 kB/s is 25 GB/month. That's a lot of telemetry going one way, and a lot of automatic content recognition signature updates going the other.

[ianburrell]

The Sidewalk bandwidth limit is 500MB/month. Per account not per device.

Also, the LoRa bandwidth is shared. It isn't 50 kbps per device but everybody within a mile or two. Also, the 50 kbps rate has a pretty short range. The normal, long range LoRa bandwidth is more like 5 kbps.

[judge2020]

For most people in high density housing (non-single-family), there's a pretty good chance someone with an alexa is within range, which means BLE communication is probable. But even for LoRa, a few KB of telemetry being sent every x hours is probably likely if a manufacturer ever integrates the radio - although the ROI might not be there if it can't handle carrying ads.

[rcme]

Low bandwidth is fine. One way that smart TVs track you is fingerprinting the audio that you're listing to, even turning on the microphone to do so. They do this to sell analytics on the content you watch. Audio finger prints are pretty tiny, and you could easily send periodic fingerprints over LoRa.

[ianburrell]

What mesh networks are they going to connect to? Are there any mesh networks?

The only other options are cellular, which manufacturer is not going to pay for a modem and service, or LoRa, which is way too low bandwidth for leaking any data.

[bradgessler]

Check out Amazon Sidewalk

[ianburrell]

Amazon Sidewalk is LoRa.

It doesn't have data price but is capped 500MB per account per month.

[wiml]

Links? This has often been described as the obvious next step for consumer-unfriendly TVs, but I don't know which brands and models to avoid.

[NoZebra120vClip]

Zealous Autoconfig: https://xkcd.com/416/