this is wild: https://spur.us/blog/smart-tv-apps-residential-proxy-sdks

@ariadne @dne that is just unspeakably ghastly

@dngrs @ariadne mostly! this is where a lot of AI scraper spam comes from.

@davidgerard @ariadne oh wow, the future of hosting has arrived

@mkljczk @ariadne it's ok the OS itself is doing shit that's just as bad

@ariadne And people thought I was nuts for wanting that shit on its own VLAN with restricted access.

@ariadne I got it via https://mastodon.social/@campuscodi/116804084610706053

@ariadne @dne
I wonder if the spy tech will move to projectors

@ariadne Saying 'no' to 'smart' appliances also an option.

@ariadne@treehouse.systems @dne@exquisite.social

Good to know, but I didn't see any links to a database of proxy-enabled apps? I mean, the only apps I have on my OLED are ones for the (major) streaming services I use (e.g., YouTube, Hulu, etc.). Be great to know if this included "the big guys" or if it's just the "free" apps.

Regardless, sounds like I need to move my TV onto my wifi's "guest" or IoT network segment.

Also makes me glad that I have my TV on a smart plug that cuts power to the TV at the end of a day of streaming.

@ariadne @dne https://www.samsung.com/us/business/commercial-tvs/all-commercial-tvs/

Obviously go for the non-smart variants of Commercial TVs. I got a 65" commercial TV and don't regret it one bit!

@ariadne @dne And pair it with a deGoogled Onn 4K TV box/stick:

https://reddit.com/r/AndroidTV/comments/12rya0t/change_launcher_debloat_the_new_onn_4k_streaming/

@dngrs @ariadne

It is used on huge parts to harvest training data for llms. This is huge problem for smaller hosters, some open source projects, openstreetmap etc because they crawl web sites at intense depth without even basic caching which wastes lots of resources, money and often makes the service inoperable for legitimate users.

I'm shocked that this is not mentioned in the report or the comments here, in my bubble I had various reports of this problem.

You can't block those IPs because there are so many and you would also block legitimate users. That is exactly why they are using them.

#residentialproxy #fuck_ai

@ariadne @dne

I am incredibly sick of smart devices.

Should i ever buy a TV i'll just hook it up to a little Debian mini PC and install something like Kodi or JellyFin on it.

Same functionality, except local and without all my data getting sold.

@Ox1de look at per-device traffic stats on your router, if it has this feature?

if TV is using a lot, when you don't actively stream something, it's almost definitely doing something bad

especially if traffic uploaded is close to traffic downloaded

normal clients send small requests, and download much bigger responses

@ariadne @dne

@ariadne @dne Of course they do. No punishment for sloppiness.

@mo @ariadne @dne I have the tv on the guest network. I suspect my router won't have traffic stats, but I can always use network tools to monitor the tv.

thank you for the help. I will check it out. peace!