Got an LG Smart TV? You may be watching it, but it is really watching you.

Remember. With TV, and the Internet... YOU are the commodity being bought and sold.

This comes as no surprise to anyone.

Now that the format LGs servers want is known, some smart hackers will tell LG's servers that everyone smart enough not to let their TV have unlimited Net access, is watching Honey Boo Boo and Midget Porn 24/7.

Too bad LG's engineers are retards who didn't use authentication and encryption best practices. Dumbasses.

No worries. The cable box and the Dish receiver have been doing this for at least a decade.
 
I have Dish. No internet connection, no phone, no uplink of any kind except the receiver active codes and my programming plan. Of course, they can figure out what channel I'm on, and I don't care about that. Way, way, way different than downloading PII from your memory stick and networked devices.
 
docmirror said:
I have Dish. No internet connection, no phone, no uplink of any kind except the receiver active codes and my programming plan. Of course, they can figure out what channel I'm on, and I don't care about that. Way, way, way different than downloading PII from your memory stick and networked devices.
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Dish stopped doing that crap where you had to have it online via phone or high speed Net or they'd disable your box, huh? They must be more desperate for growth than I thought.
 
denverpilot said:
Too bad LG's engineers are retards who didn't use authentication and encryption best practices. Dumbasses.
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Every once in a while, I get shocked about just how bad a professional software team can get. I wish that kind of incompetence were rare, but it's the rule rather than the exception. And people wonder why I don't trust tablets for navigation.

FWIW, we've been watching Dish. It turns out that one of their satellites (Echostar 11) makes a convenient test for our non-star pointing algorithms. Not that we see much more than an 11th magnitude "star" that moves rapidly with respect to real stars.
 
denverpilot said:
Dish stopped doing that crap where you had to have it online via phone or high speed Net or they'd disable your box, huh? They must be more desperate for growth than I thought.
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I just said I don't have a home phone, or internet connection. Do you want to sell me Dish service or not? DirecTV will.
 
To my knowledge the only thing it was necessary for is the automatic ordering (primarily PPV from the set top box). Now they let you do it through the internet (independent of the set top box).

I always find this market "research" amusing. I worked for a while when I was in high school for Arbitron on the TV side. Being a student I worked the evening shift so I never watched prime time TV but I sure knew what was popular. I also came to the realization that the more TV someone watched the stupider (as indicated by the inability to grasp the rather simple instructions on the TV surveys) they were.

Arbitron had tried to program computers (they were owned by then computer giant Control Data) to apply AI to the mis-filled surveys but they couldn't do it. Since they were often in limitation over the survey rules, they just trained us to know how to interpret the books. I marked them up in red pen with the right info and that got fed to the data entry people (who didn't think, just typed).
 
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docmirror said:
I have Dish. No internet connection, no phone, no uplink of any kind except the receiver active codes and my programming plan. Of course, they can figure out what channel I'm on, and I don't care about that. Way, way, way different than downloading PII from your memory stick and networked devices.
Click to expand...

How would they figure out what channel you are on if there is no return path on which to get that data?
 
PPV services are authorized by a store and forward process. The set-top or receiver is authorized with a set number of credits when activated. On a regular basis then the device is sent a query and asked to report any purchases made. That data is then sent back via whatever return path the device uses and if received on the billing end the credit limit is reset on the device.
 
denverpilot said:
No worries. The cable box and the Dish receiver have been doing this for at least a decade.
Click to expand...

Cable, yes, Dish, no (unless you're dumb enough to put it on a phone line/internet).

docmirror said:
I have Dish. No internet connection, no phone, no uplink of any kind except the receiver active codes and my programming plan. Of course, they can figure out what channel I'm on, and I don't care about that. Way, way, way different than downloading PII from your memory stick and networked devices.
Click to expand...

Correct.

denverpilot said:
Dish stopped doing that crap where you had to have it online via phone or high speed Net or they'd disable your box, huh? They must be more desperate for growth than I thought.
Click to expand...

I've had dish for years and never had it on a phone line. It'll work without it. They used to give you a break on 2 receivers in same house if you had it online (to verify that the second receiver was really in the house), but that's gone. The three key reasons for wanting it online are 1) ease of PPV ordering, 2) to make sure the receiver has not been moved to another location, and 3) to send data back to them. You can still order PPV by phone/online, though I think it costs a bit more.

They don't need me connected.

Also, Dish sells a package to RV-ers & tailgaters. Can't usually do phone for those. That's a long standing sell for Dish.

I did have to argue with them when I swapped receivers - they want me on eastern arc, but I can only see west from where I live. They wanted to send a tech out, but I insisted & it was easily resolved.
 
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