This is 100% also Microsoft fault and they are to be held accountable for this. With many drivers it can happen that one manufacturer goes rogue, but Microsoft needs to have a zero tolerance policy for this: do it once and your signature is permanently revoked for all your drivers
As much as I’d like a bigger TV with OLED, I’ll be sticking with my old Toshiba dumb TV. It’s good enough and doesn’t even know the internet exists.
i understand how smart TV can be a problem. But monitors too?
They’ll install the spyware via your hdmi / display port or what?
This was already answered multiple times in the comments when you posted this. And also in the article. Are you running in write-only mode?
LG is on my permanent vendor shitlist for related reasons.
How can a monitor install stuff on a PC? Can you do that over hdmi/dp? Does it require usb?
Either way, this stuff should be illegal or at least require a much more explicit warning than hiding it in terms of service that nobody reads. And of course everybody would do well to avoid LG out of principle from now on.
Saw the video by Gamers Nexus and basically Windows auto installs an LG Driver utility that has ads.
Razer mice have some crapware that auto-installs on Windows now, through windows update. Their official driver that it downloads adds the crap and Microsoft just lets it do it all.
No such hassles on Linux though.
Windows update, by default, is set to automatically download and install the malware for them when the HDMI cable is connected to the computer, within less than a minute.
It’s pretty much impossible to buy a dumb TV nowadays. It’s much easier to disconnect a smart TV from the internet using a firewall.
Or don’t add it to your network
Jellyfin app works really well on LG TVs. I think it’s the app that gives me the least issues of all the ones I’ve used. I find it much easier to use than pluging in a laptop. In other scenario external computer may be the best option.
Not impossible, several options are still out there if you actually search for “non smart TV” on retailers’ websites.
Sceptre was one brand that made decent non-smart TVs but they seem to be vanishing off the market now. Many used ones still on ebay and other secondhand markets. Their website still shows a bunch of TV models but the retail links turn up empty.
I searched and didn’t find anything in Europe. And that was couple of years ago already. Maybe there are some sources I don’t know about but I didn’t find any in typical stores.
I wish we would stop using smart to describe surveillance technology. Smart sounds nicez but there’s nothing smart about it…
That is the neat thing about language, it adapts. Euphemisms wear off and something like “smart device” increasingly sounds like “nasty anti-consumer surveillance home appliance” all by itself.
you need popular public sentiment for that. most people just shrug it off if even that
For the PC Monitor issue: To prevent this sort of behavior. Open Group Policy Editor Computer Configuration>Administrative Templates>System>Device Installation Prevent automatic downloads of applications associated with device metadata = Set to Enable.
To get rid of it once installed you have to remove it from the Windows Store since it’s an app, not an installed program. For me, this was not possible as there was no way presented to uninstall it in the app store. I had to do it from terminal with this command, which could vary a bit depending on the exact app version:
Remove-AppxPackage LGElectronics.LGMonitorApp_1.2606.1601.0_x86__cfnzzhwkr8z5w
You can search for it by the appx name and then use a pipe to remove the package. Then you don’t need to worry about specific version numbers:
Get-AppxPackage -Name ‘LGElectronics.LGMonitorApp’ | Remove-AppxPackage
Tried going through this with my grandma on video call. She asked: “why is there a police group in my computer?”
Keep in mind this will disable plug-and-play for other devices one plugs in.
Which is excellent, from a security standpoint, but something to be cognizant of.
store apps can also be uninstalled from the settings app.
for the first setting, it’s easier to turn that and more off with o&o shutup10
store apps can also be uninstalled from the settings app.
Also using winget.
Never buy a “smart” appliance that you want a dumb version of.
The problem is that this is about normal LG screens, nothing smart about them.
Simply put, Microsoft detects you’re using an LG screen, it downloads the appropriate drivers released by LG, and those drivers are in fact just nagware.
Straight to the list of things “I will never buy in my life”.
Yeah, Same here honestly
My lg TV is late 2024. When I first got and was setting it up, asked me to connect to the internet, something about benefits, AI. I was like are you insane TV? you will NEVER have access to the internet, this is exactly why my nvidia shield is locked in a old 8.9 version and pihole block all the things.
You can root it and disable the updates. If you don’t accept the terms, the ai tool isn’t working.
There’s a new root way released recently that most likely works with your model.
You should update the Shield. You’ll get security updates and the Pihole will remove ads.
After the dashboard change on my shield, I simply installed projectify as the new launcher. Now I only see what I want without ads.
yeah I have it as well
That’s too bad because the monitors themselves are pretty good.
My LG tv is too old for this shit. But it does not get ethernet or wifi password just in case they decide to update the firmware
Does anyone make dumb TVs anymore? Seems like there’s a sizable market for it. I haven’t had a TV in 6 years and want one for local channels, but I really don’t want a smart TV.
just get a smart one and never connect it online
ok how can I watch anything then?
Plug your own devices in with HDMI.
assuming you have a coax cable connection on it, mount an antenna, go to settings and find a channel scanner to run
They still access and provide a route through your wifi.
What? How would they do that if they are never connected to WiFi in the first place?
They still talk and connect if you want them to or not. The “permissions” is mostly for the apps to talk back and forth. It is still usable by anyone who knows how.
Smart TVs do not magically connect to your WiFi without credentials.
Now if there is an open WiFi available, that might be a way or if the TV has a deal with a carrier to use all that open automatic WiFi.
A bit more technical details please. How do the connect to what? It sounds a bit like they can just magically connect via telepathy to their home base if you phrase it like that.
It sounds a bit like they can just magically connect via telepathy to their home base if you phrase it like that.
Its not that difficult, scan for open wifi, if detected, connect, phone home to spy central.
The more sinister, each tv that successfully detects a connection to spy central broadcasts a 2nd wifi that the tv can scan for and connect similar to mesh networking.
There are tons of reasons to want a network connected monitor, the problem is no-one seems interested in producing one without the spyware. I’d love a 40”+ device that supported rtsp, etc but until enough people step up and boycott all this spy crap it’ll never be worth producing better devices. 😞
Mh, yeah I see the possibility of using an open network in theory, but in practice I haven’t seen a open Wifi network in years (excluding business owned ones, but usually you need to confirm something there and can’t use them forever). So not sure how feasible that is. The more sinister option is done by Echo devices for example (that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Sidewalk), but also requires a second device nearby. Much more possible possible though, if similar devices are nearby. But that can’t be hidden anyway and it should be possible to check for that.
I feel like the best option to get the monitor network connected is still a secondary device and never using the built in firmware (and first checking if said device got things like you described).
I’m confused; are you suggesting the TVs ship with an embedded SIM?
not if you dont connect it. of course my “smart” tv allows that, your’s may not. they all will bitch and moan about turning it on when first set up but you should be able to ignore it or set it up “later”
Sceptre seems to be the only company makinh consumer-grade dumb TVs.
I just never gave my smart TV network info. It’s at the factory settings and can’t connect to anything. If there isn’t a console connected to it then it is useless. Just like the good ole days.
They still have ways to connect, though they’re lower bandwidth and less reliable.
How?
You didn’t connect your Samsung smart TV, but your neighbor did, and they connect over a second separate Samsung™©® network that you and your neighbor both ‘consented’ to in the Eula’s, where media fingerprints and timestamps are exchanged updated, etc during downtime. Evil mesh networks, basically.
Or Sony™, or rjfyjdokfdrlvdgjg™, or whatever.
That’s really interesting and very plausible. I’d never considered it.
Documented. Forget where.
I wish Lemmy had a ban list and post/thread removal list. It’d make it easier to know what’s allowed here.
There is, its called industrial tv “iiyama” for example is a brand of those
I’ve looked into these in the past. Unfortunately, they are extremely dated TVs that are visually and aesthetically unpleasing.
You should just get a smart TV which allows setting it up without wi-fi instead.
Time to add LG to the list of computer display OEMs I will avoid like the plague on principle.
