EVERYTHING is a damn smart tv now
[1]https://www.sceptre.com/TV/4K-UHD-TV-category1category73.htm...
As much as you think this scenario is paranoia, your visitors will think you not connecting your TV is just as paranoid.
Cover the light, I thought!
...the annoying light is adjacent to the IR receiver.
Cover the light, no remote.
Is this intentional?
Anyway I think the real threats will be:
1) Aggressive wifi search connecting itself, including deals with ISP routers to allow them to bypass you or even other devices.
2) Time-bombs causing the TV to become non-functional or degraded if you don't connect it to the internet, after the warranty or return window has expired
3) In-built 5G modem connectivity (everyone says this is to expensive but manufacturers could cut bulk deals and could limit the bandwidth usage, even just sneaking in firmware updates has a lot of abuse potential)
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2015/02/samsung_telev...
Any "Smart" TV that has a camera to see who is watching (to customize content and ads) does just that...
Needless to say, from that moment onwards, no wifi and no ethernet for the TV. I got an Xbox with Kodi connected to it. I am not saying the Xbox is immune to data harvesting (probably they collect a fair bit), but feels less intrusive and obnoxious than the whole package of the smart TV.
In some extremely dystopian future that I'm sure is coming quickly, a television may be equipped with video surveillance capability that can identify eyeballs in real time and decide exactly what animal is viewing what part of the screen and estimate from bloodflow in the face and pupil dilation the extent to which they care and are paying attention, but we're definitely not there yet.
Right now, this is still just snake oil they're selling to ad buyers. Why I get almost all fast food, beer, and insurance ads, even though I don't drink, haven't eaten fast food since 2002, and haven't changed insurance providers since 2008.
Because it's not an option if you're McKinsey, a data broker, a private security firm, or anyone contracting them. Data collection is an obligation, a requirement. They need to know about what's everyones up to, even if it's only through real time metadata.
Face recognition cameras everywhere, automatic photo radars, license plate readers at busy corners, everything going through apps in potentially always operating and recording pocket pcs we call smartphones, with potential trojans everywhere, in potentially everything. TV's are just one evocation of the disease, mainly directed at old folks, because nobody else cares about TVs and cable subscriptions anymore.
Anyone with just an once of understanding about how computer networking actually operates will actively put up all sorts of firewalls and air gaps around anything they own, because why not.
Anyone else, who shrugs at geek talk, is nothing but fair game, and will remain until someone suddenly pulls the rug from under them. Think massive actionable intelligence used against large parts of a population in a war, or a conscription, or a coup, or a full scale invasion, or whatever. Anything less will only be laughed at and dismissed.
You're offering a comprehensive law against that? That's not enough, far from it. Pass anything, I guaranty you the hydra will still be well and thriving anyway.
Or would it be best just to never connect the TV to a network and use a computer to access streaming services.
As content providers consolidate on shared infrastructure (AWS, gcp, etc) the chances of good and bad actors using the same IP increases. This decreases the effectiveness of firewalls that operate on ip:port matching. Most firewalls do this.
Realistically, what you probably want as a tech savvy consumer is home network level DNS blacklist. It is not a firewall and it doesn't technically block traffic. It does prevent traffic from leaving the device if the DNS the device wants to send to is blacklisted. This exists (pihole) and can be added to a network fairly quickly. Bad actors could bypass your DNS or use known ips directly. Whitelisting dns would also work with the caveat that you'll need to update the list frequently and I don't think pihole was designed for this.
All of that is fairly complicated. A wireless keyboard and mouse and HDMI cable are cheap and laptops are plentiful. You will have the same adversarial content provider issues with a laptop, though. Scriptsafe and ublock can help. Laptops actually shut down when you tell them to. Your tv is probably on even when the screen is off.
I made this decision recently when I inherited a Sony TV with a house. It has not been connected to a network and I use a laptop to stream. I also run pihole, scriptsafe, ublock, and I pay for most of my streaming providers. They're still getting data on me, but less than most people.
no need to overcomplicate, your concerns are valid but we're not there yet. Above has worked fine for 2+ years as is.
Love that predatory bullshit, and it keeps on happening with every TV platform.
