Somewhere, not here. #ADOS
Atlanta, GA
Joined January 2013
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If you've ever wondered why smart TVs are so cheap, this is why.
@log4j rooted his Samsung and found an always-on hot mic, automatic content recognition, geolocation, network mapping, ad targeting and user profiling, shared with Samsung's "400 partners".
A lot of it can be blocked in <15 min, wrote a basic guide below.
What your TV is doing
The main culprit is ACR (automatic content recognition). Your TV screenshots what's on screen, fingerprints it, and sends it home to build your ad profile. Samsung does it every 500ms, LG every 10ms [1].
What is insane: it happens on connected devices too.
Plug in your laptop, your console, your work machine, and your TV can fingerprint that via HDMI [1].
He also found that if your Samsung doesn't have a mic, it'll look for one from a connected soundbar or bluetooth device.
xitter.cf/log4j/status/211376224…
It's on by default, and you likely agreed to it on the setup screen you clicked through in 10 seconds.
Step 1: Turn off ACR
Samsung: Terms & Privacy → Viewing Information Services
LG: Live Plus
Vizio: Viewing Data
Roku: "Use info from TV inputs"
Sony/Google TV: Samba Interactive TV
Menus vary by model, but those are the names to look for. While you're in there, opt out of interest-based ads, reset your advertising ID, decline every optional privacy agreement, turn off voice recognition, and delete apps you never open.
Step 2: Give smart devices their own network
Put the TV, cameras, speakers and vacuum on your router's guest/IoT network. The logic is simple: these devices rarely get patched. If one gets compromised (getting drastically more frequent with AI), it shouldn't be able to see your other devices or home network.
Step 3: Block trackers for the whole house with DNS-level filtering
NextDNS (cloud-based) is easy and has a solid free plan. Pi-hole is a little bit more work if you prefer self hosting. For simplicity we'll focus on the former.
1. Sign up at nextdns.io (free tier is plenty)
2. Privacy tab: add a blocklist (OISD is a good bet) and turn on Native Tracking Protection for Samsung, LG, Roku, Amazon (see attached image)
3. Setup tab: copy your endpoint
4. Paste it into your router's DNS settings as DNS-over-HTTPS/TLS (or use the IPs + "Link IP" if your router only does plain DNS)
5. Bonus: block outbound port 53 except to your router. Some devices hardcode their own DNS to get around you
Then open the NextDNS logs and watch how often your TV phones home. It's eye-opening. If an app or update breaks, find the domain in the logs and allowlist it.
Why they do this
TV prices are down 97% since 2000 [2]. Most of that is better manufacturing and brutal competition. But once margins on the hardware hit zero, the cost moved to you.
In Q3 2024, Vizio lost $6.7M selling TVs and made $115.8M in gross profit from ads and viewing data [3]. They've said on earnings calls that they keep TV prices low to grow the audience they sell to advertisers. Walmart bought them in 2024.
This isn't a conspiracy theory either. Vizio paid $2.2M to the FTC in 2017 for tracking 11 million TVs without consent. Last December, Texas sued Samsung, LG, Sony, Hisense and TCL over ACR. Samsung and LG have since agreed to stop collecting that data without explicit consent [4].
TL;DR
1. ACR off
2. Ads + voice off
3. Smart devices on their own network
4. NextDNS filtering on the router
Sources:
[1] ACR study: arxiv.org/abs/2409.06203
[2] Cost of US consumer goods: aei.org/economics/chart-of-t…
[3] Vizio Q3 2024: sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/…
[4] Texas v. Samsung: texasattorneygeneral.gov/new…
FreedomPapers retweeted
The guy in the cowboy hat next to LeBron spends about $500,000 a year on courtside seats, and he pays for it with rent from retirees who can't take their homes and leave.
His name is James Goldstein. He's been to more than 5,000 NBA games, and he owns trailer parks in Southern California.
Here's the thing about trailer parks most people never think about. You own your home, but you rent the little patch of dirt it sits on. And "mobile" homes almost never move. The Supreme Court looked at this back in 1992 and noted that only about 1 in 100 ever gets moved once it's set down. Moving one can eat a huge chunk of what the house is even worth, and a lot of parks won't accept older homes anyway.
So if the landlord raises your lot rent, you can pay it, or you can walk away from a house you own outright.
That's basically the whole business model. It's why more than 100 cities and counties in California put rent control on mobile home parks, and it's why Goldstein has spent decades fighting them in court.
In 2006 he bought Colony Cove, a park for seniors in Carson, for about $23 million, most of it borrowed. The next year he asked the city to let him raise rent $618 a month per lot. The city said no. He's sued Carson at least eight times since, including a $78 million claim a state judge threw out. A federal jury gave him $3.3 million in 2016, and an appeals court took it back two years later.
In Palm Springs he tried something smarter. He moved to break his El Dorado park into individually owned lots, which can knock out local rent control and leave residents choosing between buying the ground under their own house or paying market rent. The city paid him $937,500 to settle, and the appeals ruling from that fight gave park owners all over California a legal path to do the same thing. It took a new state law in 2013 to let cities block those conversions when residents don't want them.
To give him his due, Goldstein argues rent control is unfair to owners, and when it comes to apartments a lot of economists would back him up. Trailer parks are where that argument gets a lot harder to make, because leaving means hauling your house down the freeway.
Now do the math on that 2007 raise. $618 a month comes out to about $7,400 a year per lot. The raise on roughly 67 lots would pay for an entire season of his courtside seats.
FreedomPapers retweeted
In 20-25 years when Black Americans no longer have any political power/leverage, we will look back on these moments in disgust. Better get educated and learn to habla espanol
🤣🤣 We So FLORIDA!!!!!! 🔥🔥🔥🔥 It’s A Florida Thang U Wouldn’t Understand!!!! @AngieNixon & @Plies 🩷🩷🩷 VOTE VOTE VOTE!!!!! 👊🏾💯🫶🏾 #Plies 🤍
FreedomPapers retweeted
Killer Mike can be criticized, just not by FD Insignificant, who describes himself as “a wealthy YouTuber”
FD couldn’t care less about his community. He’s a fraud.
FreedomPapers retweeted
I heard him say every Black person should give $5 to an HBCU and almost fell into a depression, because it’s obvious he’s just winging it. This is a recipe for us remaining STUCK debating one wild hot take after another.
Meanwhile ADOSAF already has an education agenda—as part of our black agenda—which includes HBCUs, but these people don’t want organized political action. They want content. It’s maddening.
FreedomPapers retweeted
Basically, “dont ask no questions about issues effecting your community, just vote, figure it out later” type shit. Another duck for the establishment. Good job fat boy.
FreedomPapers retweeted
Literally nobody said anything about growing up in the Ghetto....Yall got raised to be so Cracker coded, it's insane lol
FreedomPapers retweeted
In every telling of our history, we are subordinated by out-group and in-group historians. This is a narrative I refuse to abide by and will reject with every fiber of my being. You don’t control our past, present, or future. We’re the arbiters of our own destiny.
FreedomPapers retweeted
A 9-year-old boy was grabbed by a stranger, forced into a car, and driven away while selling water on the side of the road.
But as the car sped through the streets, the terrified little boy looked out the window and began waving desperately for help. What happened next was unbelievable.
It happened in Jacksonville, Florida. The boy had been selling bottled water near an intersection when a man suddenly forced him into a vehicle and took off.
Shameika Dowell, who knew the boy and was helping supervise the children, witnessed what happened. She jumped into her own vehicle with her son and took off after the suspect, refusing to let the little boy disappear.
As she followed the car through the streets, she could see the boy inside, frightened and crying for help. She kept chasing until the driver finally stopped, then moved to block his escape.
But the boy was still trapped inside. Shameika rushed toward the vehicle and began kicking at the passenger door, determined to get it open. Other bystanders rushed over to see what was happening and began helping. They kept going until she finally managed to force the door open and pull the little boy to safety.
Police arrested the suspected kidnapper, and the boy was reunited with his family. Despite everything he’d been through, he later said he still wanted to sell water so he could buy clothes for school.
Shameika Dowell refused to look away when a little boy needed help. Her courage deserves to be recognized. 💙 – at Chicago, IL
FreedomPapers retweeted
Well I have published countless articles on this...it is simply the truth of the matter.
All through out history YT women has gotten more Blacks killed and tortured than any one in #America. They knew how to get YT men on a killing spree with a lie. I would say the deaths they caused has ended thousands of innocent Black lives. 🤔😡🤬
Wait, that borderline PDF show Euphoria was originally Israeli?
Yeah that explains a LOT
FreedomPapers retweeted
Will drop by this restaurant and get back to you guys with my review.
Lmao @ the afro-pessimists
FreedomPapers retweeted
The truth is not only in what’s being said but also in what’s not being said
This quoted post is unavailable.
FreedomPapers retweeted
The Japanese didn't implement any policies to keep certain areas in a constant cycle of poverty due to a segment of their population being a different skin tone.
