[jmward01]

That is my problem. What can you trust anymore? Is there an appliance out there that can do the basics and not be a malware gateway?

[mapt]

Smart TVs replaced dumb TVs not out of consumer demand, but out of subsidy from commercial databrokers and streaming services. Despite adding $100 of hardware they were priced $100 cheaper.

[throw0101a]

> Smart TVs replaced dumb TVs not out of consumer demand […]

The consumer demand was/is for cheaper, and data mining is how OEMs got there. The general public got what they want, and OEMs got to keep their margins: "win-win".

It's the same thing with (US?) airlines: people wanted cheaper, and that's what was offered and they chose.

[vablings]

Faustian barging, the worst part is people are simple unaware of the dealings

[iso1631]

Consumers will happily sell their data for a $100 discount. Hell they'll waste 20 minutes watching adverts to save $1.

[lodovic]

I'm always wondering how hard it would be to just remove the hardware for spying. Just keep enough hardware to make it a dumb panel, remove the webos logic boards, wifi antenna, etc.

[modo_mario]

Is there still any specific brand known for dumb tv's that features the quality and 'non smart' options of the smart variants?

[throw0101a]

Many OEMs have "commercial" / "corporate" displays that may be applicable:

* https://www.samsung.com/us/business/displays/

[jddj]

You could give it a vpn to a public cloud provider so that even if they run residential proxies they still get a dirty vps IP.

Admittedly this doesn't stop the presumed screenshotting and microphone use and worse