this post was submitted on 31 Mar 2025
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techsupport

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It seems to be related to some advertising push from a partner named Alfonso that is gathering information cross-platform anything that appears on your screen and pushing advertising to you during playback.

Hopefully not, but that's what it looks like from early reading.

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[–] [email protected] 62 points 2 days ago (1 children)

My LG TV is not connected to the internet.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Very smart. Do you live alone? My family is down with the sickness.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 2 days ago (2 children)

The TV is essentially used as a dumb monitor and has an Apple TV and Chromecast plugged into it.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (4 children)

I've got a Fire in the back of mine which I want everyone to use, but everyone just uses the LG interface except me.

Of course it screws up all the time, and when it does my first question is, "Hey did you try what you're doing on the Fire plugged into the back to see if it worked on that?"

Not like I love the fire either, but pick your poison, right? Apple, Amazon, Google, LG. Which large tech company would you like to milk your information?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I have an old laptop running LibreELEC (literally) strapped to the back of my TV. With a PC connected remote it works great.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

That's the way we do it, Dave! Making fire with sticks!

[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 days ago

Sounds like it's time to block the TV from the network and just play dumb lol

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)

They'll never use the LG interface again if you just block its Mac adresses from your router.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago (3 children)

I'm tech support in the house.

You want me to have to admit I can't fix something?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 16 hours ago

It's easy. "They must have changed something and it broke. Luckily I planned ahead and got the firetv so you could still watch everything as usual".

Bonus points because it's not a lie, they changed the tos, and you are now this clever guy that prepared a plan b in case something stopped working because you didn't want them to suffer. Intelligent, loving Melatonin.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

To be honest I would, the more they think you can fix anything the more annoying they are about fixing everything even if it's not even possible. From my experiences in the past I just would tell them there was a update and it stopped the TV from connecting to online and there's nothing you can do about it

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

☝️ Evil genius

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago

"I fixed it so our personal information doesn't get sold to the highest bidder."

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

does the fire stick have the ability to wake the tv up? in that case, just hide the TV remote.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

That's precisely how we use it.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 2 days ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 days ago

Yes from a hardware and user experience perspective, and a more pessimistic maybe/not really from a privacy perspective. I think smart TVs are a little more aggressive with their anti user changes because they see it as a captive audience. They market the hardware specs, then add ads to the UI. Streaming sticks really only have their user interface and user experience to market, so they're a little less aggressive with the negative changes.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] -3 points 2 days ago (2 children)

So replacing one spying device with another is better?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] -2 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

There are good reasons for it that you're not grasping, but I'm pretty sure your behavior in your responses in this thread is why no one is bother to try to interact with you and explain them. I know its why I'm not bothering to explain them to you at least. I hope you get the streaming device experience you desire.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Considering the initial post is about privacy concerns, saying that one spying device is better than another because it is more user-friendly is stupid.

I'm understanding the points, I'm just saying the reasoning is idiotic.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

So LG taking screenshots of what you put on your screen, along with all their other telemetry, is the same as another device that only tracks your watchlist?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

That's like saying that all spying is equal and all information is of equal value.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

Time for a Pi-Hole or similar if you don’t already have one.