Michael Price read the privacy policy for his new television. He found a lot of policy, but not much privacy:

http://www.salon.com/2014/10/30/im_t...d_youd_be_too/

An excerpt:

The most surprising thing about this article is that a consumer actually read a "privacy policy."

Isn't smart tv a linux based tv?

I don't care much about privacy but I love thread title.

It is likely a Linux box. Most "smart televisions" are.

I just bought a new television. I don't think it has network capability, but, even if it does, I have no interest in using it. I already have access to 100 channels of refuse; I don't need access to 1,000 channels of refuse.

As for the title, I always liked Yakov Smirnoff's work.

Our television consists of a 20-something inch flatscreen and an antenna on the roof. No Internet, no "smart" TVs.

All we really watch is the news. Nothing else is really worth it.

... whereas I do not have a television at all, and have not had one for more than thirty(!) years now.

I do not miss it.

However, I do know that both my computer and my cell-phone probably do "bug the room" all the time.

"Why?" Simply because they can ...

... and because I am quite sure that some very-well-$$connected$$ military contractor, along with his contingent of lap-dog $$enator$$ and ¢ongre$$men, today gets millions billions of dollars a day (altogether in [font=courier]##¢LA$$IFIED[##/font]) putting those voice-files in front of top men of the US Government.

Uh huh, wherever in the world you are, in the end it's "Your Tax Dollar$ At Work."

But, mark my words, e-v-e-n-t-u-a-l-l-y, this simple truth will simultaneously dawn in the minds of a couple hundred million people:
Until then ...

Less than 50% of TVs are "smart" currently. IMO, I should be smart and my devices dumb and humble to my will _insert_evil_laugh_here_.

Really, you know, that may have been an aside, but you've put your cyber-finger on the issue.

I want my devices to do what I want and need them to do, not what someone else wants them to do.

I realize that, to have some of the nice things I want, I must give up some of that control, but I do what I can. For example, I keep the GPS on my phone turned off unless I need it. Google, however it much it wants to, does not need to know exactly where I am all the time. It can nag me all it wants to turn on "location services," but, really, who do those "location services" serve if they are turned on all the time. They aren't serving me.

(And I don't use turn-by-turn navigation. I use maps. Remember maps? Maps are neat.)

I think the main thing "smart" devices are designed to be are advertising platforms ... or even worse mass spying platforms, but they go hand-in-hand. They want to know you and feed you what they think you want to eat. They really are taking away your choice, your freedom, your privacy, and your power all at once. I'm not standing for it, they can shove their "smart" devices back from whence they came.

I also don't see any reason to make one device do everything ... poorly. Same reason for not making one software program do everything, also poorly. Do one thing and do it well, that applies to software and hardware. If I want a good camera I reach for a digital camera. If I want a computing device I reach for a desktop or laptop if on the go. If I want a phone I reach for a phone, preferably a dumb one that doesn't also track me and tell me what I should be buying. If I want a TV, then I expect it to be watched and not be watching me

In Crony-Corporatist America, a bank robs you!

I don't think it started out that way, but it certainly has become that way. I heard someone to describe the new Amazon phone thingee as a "buy now" button with a phone attached.

So, you want a TV that can play some show by you speaking to it, correct? Cheap TV said it's better to double check what online solution to voice to text is. It sends it up so you can watch.

Same as your phone, car, alarm and what not.

You can still buy dumb stuff.

You don't have to watch tv.

Could even move to China cause they are for the people.