[VLM]

How aggressive are modern smart TVs?

The salesperson conned my MiL into buying a smart TV, and/or it was the only one available. She doesn't have internet, she's just not into it.

I could imagine a TV refusing to operate until its connected to the internet to upload your viewing habits and download new ads... but the smart TVs from a year or two ago were not that aggressive.

I would never connect one to my LAN. How can I know its security holes and upgrades and issues, how do I unbrick it once it inevitably gets owned, how do I virus scan or otherwise clean it up, its just too difficult and complicated compared to my simpler system. As long as they still operate without ever having a wifi connection, I'll be OK.

Edited to add, "the tv asked for my wifi password so I told it, what could possibly go wrong?" is going to be the next decades "someone on the internet asked me for my bank account number so I told him, what could possibly go wrong?" Right up there with browser toolbar installers.

[pjc50]

In the future we'll have browser toolbar installers on the TV.

(Tangentially, does anyone else remember the awfulness of early 2000s WebTV? Mostly expressed through badly formatted usenet posts)