Hacker reverse engineers his Samsung TV and finds on-device AI listening for your dog and baby, watching what you watch, and borrowing your soundbar’s mic if the TV doesn’t have one. Then OpenAI banned him for reverse-engineering it.
Source:
Hacker reverse engineers his Samsung TV and finds on-device AI listening for your dog and baby, watching what you watch, and borrowing your soundbar’s mic if the TV doesn’t have one. Then OpenAI banned him for reverse-engineering it.
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Everyone keeps saying this, but I’ve yet to see any TV caught doing it. They enumerate the devices and networks around them.
I want to build an esp32 with an open access point that logs mac addresses that connect to it. Maybe have it cycle through SSIDs- FreeWiFi PublicWifi Xfinity etc
Maybe deploy it in an apartment where tv density is high?
You need to give it real internet and watch it connect. Android (and i suspect ios) constantly scan all network ssids to refresh the local nework ssid list.
It doesn’t know my device is a dead end until it connects. By then, i have the MAC
That’s accurate. But you’re going to have the mac address of every laptop, tv, phone, light bulb, toaster, microwave, and corporate access point.
EVERYTHING sweeps the network.
And most of them are going to hit some form of beacon to see if the connection is even online. They’re not just going to blindly call snarfingallyourprivatedataoversomeotherunsecurednetwork.samsung.com
They might even call some base telemetry on samsung.com to identify the network as open to your internet connection wizard, ESPECIALLY if they’re not connect. right?
The best option is what the subject of the post is about and just tear down the firmware and see what it does. This is happening now and is the best answer.
the second best option is to give it real open access and see what it does with it. If you start seeing telemetry that’s a strong indicator. That said, if you leave it over for long periods of time, there’s a chance that someone will eventaully tell their tv to go ahead and use that open access point. at which point your checks of does it do it on it’s own are questionable.
Let the leet crew tear it apart; trust what they find.
I don’t know, I think an open source board replacement would be good too. I’d prefer that, actually.
Hell, if I could make a decent replacement for Roku and plug it into my TV, I’d open the TV up and disable the WiFi altogether.
My mention of the best option was specifically in response to the question "can the disconnected tv’s use open wifi, amazon sidewalk or whatever means to invade your privacy. Since they don’t appear to properly turn off microphones, i wouldn’t be surprised to see them not turning off wifi. TBH, i don’t think they’re trying to use other gateways to get out, but the only sure way would be to romp through the unprotected OS.
What you desire is quite doable, though it has caveats.
If you want to watch Jellyfin and play disks, you can use a slightly beefier SBC and run OpenElec with Kodi. There are some remote projects out there where you don’t need a full keyboard to use it.
If you want Netflix/Hulu/D+ bullshit, you’re better off getting a cheap walmart ONN stick, root it and gut it down to whatever you really need https://xdaforums.com/t/root-guide-walmart-onn-4k-streaming-stick-2026-google-tv-wayne-rtd1325-root-with-magisk.4794208/
The biggest issue in my home is not the mainstream streamers but things like Kanopy and Hoopla(public library offerings). If I can’t get those, then it’s a dead project before it begins.
Thanks for the root guide, I’ll look into it.
If you didn’t want a stick, and want to go into the weeds, there are androidTV builds for Waydroid that would run under linux. You’d probably want more horsepower for that tho.
Also, Play Integrity will likely eventually come for us all :)
Sounds super fun, but probably rumba is right. Get a burner, put an open access point on it (should be a quick app) and log the fuck out of it. Likely get years of content of it if you’re the youtube kind. Look! Corpo X(Y and Z) are evil fucks!