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…

1/ Today we're launching our zkTLS verification iOS app and Chrome extension, starting with credit score screening from Experian, Credit Karma and NerdWallet.

#BREAKING: Every Senate Democrat votes to block the insider trading ban.

Merz says that he wants new laws that would make it impossible to post anonymously on social media. He says “don’t give me any of that free speech nonsense” He also says that the state must be able to protect its citizens from misinformation. Many famous writers published sensitive information and books under pseudonym, including John Locke, Thomas Paine, Baruch Spinoza and Jonathan Swift.

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I've taken an allowlist snapshot of FWAIR PFP holders, the top 400 $FWA holders, as well as my past projects including OpCodes from earlier this year, Del Complex Archival Media and Brain Worms, Flourish and Neophyte @artblocks_io collections, Ideas of Mountains and Spectacle.

The money printer doesn't hand out cash evenly. That's the part people miss. New money enters at specific points. Whoever touches it first spends it at yesterday's prices. Whoever touches it last spends it after prices have already moved. The order runs like this: 1. The central bank creates it 2. Primary dealers and large banks receive it 3. Government contractors and large corporations receive it 4. Asset owners receive it, as it bids up stocks and property 5. Wage earners receive it last, as a 3% raise 6. Savers receive it as a bill Everyone in the first three slots got richer. Everyone in the last two paid for it. Richard Cantillon described this in the 1730s. Nearly three centuries later the machine still runs, and it still runs in the same direction. You were never going to save your way out of a system where your distance from the printer decides your outcome. The only move is holding something the printer can't reach. Drop a question below. I read every reply.

Reporter: You described this as an economic D-Day, but D-Day wasn't a threat of an invasion and the US didn't give a timeline to Germany. So why not impose the sanctions today? Bessent: Why would I want to blow up the global financial system?