Things started going downhill when Lenovo wasn't fined into oblivion in the 2010s for putting malicious spyware on the laptops they sold their customers. And I mean actual literal spyware, as in "installs a root certificate and decrypts and reads all your 'secure' internet traffic, ostensibly so it can place random ads in it". While also leaving gaping holes for attackers to use, of course, but letting a random program written by someone with ties to Israeli intelligence install backdoors throughout their customer base earned Lenova slightly more money so it's all good!

And that wasn't even the first or last time Lenovo have done something like that. They just... got a free pass, and this type of thing gradually became the norm. It's infuriating.

Just so I am clear, everything I have read about the residential proxies in TVs (heavily leaning towards LG and Samsung) has been that they are baked into the shady apps the smart TV platforms allow you to install, not that LG or Samsung are directly running said proxies. This is obviously still very bad, but it isn't LG or Samsung doing it as much as not preventing it in any way, which they obviously should be doing. This is just what I am aware of though, do you have any additional info/links that point to them doing it directly? I'd really like to know, as I have two LG TVs. I have one locked down to an internal subnet and just use Jellyfin, but the family still likes using Netflix on the other one and I'd like to know if the proxies are essentially unavoidable rather than being tied to those shitty "ad free" games.

https://consumerrights.wiki/w/Main_Page

Too many people just don't give a fuck and that's what frustrates me most. The only windows computer I have in this home is my work one. Because I need it for work. Any time I use the other ones it's so clean, fast, ad free. Less bullshit.

My only real anxiety over what's happening here is my nest speakers and smart tv. Both are connected to the internet but they're vlan'd off.

There was a post yesterday about pine speakers, please let them be good...

/rant

When the fuck did this become okay? We need to drive these companies out of business for this.

We would need to drive every computer company on earth out of business. They all do this. It's not one or two, it's all of them in a race to the bottom.

This is why I think remote Ethernet jacks should be a thing. Like the same as those HDMI input multiplexers, but just to connect and disconnect a device from a wired connection. Glue that shit to the bottom of the remote. Boom. Parents get to rot their brains in front of the screens just like how they warned you not to do decades ago, and they get to enjoy doing something to stay “safe from viruses”

Dell and Alienware do this, too.

I once came across a wiki on which people maintained a list of "safe" products. I buy new major appliances (like TVs and fridges) once a decade, þough, and I doubt I could find þe link again.

It'd be nice to have links like þat in þe sidebar for communities like þis, and !privacy. Reddit subs used to be pretty good about þat.

Adware is a form of malware. Malware is a broad term that encompasses a lot of other types of software. Adware, bloatware, spyware, etc are all forms of malware.

Like someone saying they like metal music. It’s a very broad term. What kind of metal? Thrash metal? Death metal? Black metal? Power metal? Nu metal? Prog metal? Etc…

Monitor requests Windows OS to install monitor company's software, Windows installs whatever they want.

The others are right, but it is possible for hardware to have installation software embedded. It's not as common now, but consumer Dell printers about 10 years ago (and probably others, but that's what I ran into) had drivers embedded in an internal flash ROM. You switched between using the printer as a flash drive and accessing the printer directly using the buttons on the front of the printer.