[eckelhesten]

If I got a dollar for every person suckered into buying Samsung products…

But to stay on topic: never! connect your tv to the internet. My LG has been offline for around 5 years now after automatically installing unwanted apps. Since then, I run everything via an Apple TV 4K which works way better than LGs own software does anyway.

[stvltvs]

Putting on tinfoil hat... how do we know it isn't connecting to our neighbors' open WiFi?

[BenjiWiebe]

Do your neighbors have open Wi-Fi? I'm a country dweller, but when I'm in town I look at the Wi-Fi list (in horror) sometimes, and it's really rare to see an open Wi-Fi network.

[stvltvs]

Anecdotal but my laptop just found 2 open WiFi networks out of 20. One's enough though.

[BenjiWiebe]

Are they truly open, or are they captive portals? Of course, it might be possible to exfiltrate data through a captive portal network, depending on how they implement the portal.

[philistine]

It’s a common fear. People constantly mention it on HN every time the advice to keep a TV off the internet is mentioned. Yet we have never seen proof by anyone, not once, that it has happened. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

[eckelhesten]

That would be a lawsuit waiting.

[brador]

Can a screen/monitor/TV send data back over HDMI through a connected computer or is that a 1 way connection?

[eckelhesten]

Technically yes, hdmi supports transmitting Ethernet. Realistically no.

[NetOpWibby]

Exact same setup here. Ideally I'd buy a dumb TV but they don't exist in the modern era.