Comment by gdulli | Hacker News Reader

Comment by gdulli | Hacker News Reader

Is this a Samsung app that you would never see if you have no interest in smart apps and leave your TV off the internet? Because if so that's easily avoided, Netflix would also profile me and advertise content to me through its app, and I don't plan to ever open that one either.

This screenshot looks like a streaming content interface, and data mining you has been a fundamental part of all these services for years, right? Not saying it's great, just that this isn't new or unusual. Of course they're tracking what you watch for advertising purposes.

Or is this a fundamental part of the UI for a Samsung TV that you need to interact with for daily use even if you don't want content through Samsung? Because that would be unacceptable. I wouldn't buy a TV if it required an internet connection to function.

My favorite type of advertising is traditional TV commercials that can be fast forwarded or muted and fully skipped. There's never going to be a net decrease in advertising. Digital and streaming are just making it harder to skip, keep strictly separate from content, and receive anonymously.

> Is this a Samsung app that you would never see if you have no interest in smart apps and leave your TV off the internet? Because if so that's easily avoided

So the problem with this approach is that, yes sure if you have the technical acumen you can prevent the TV from phoning home, but you are still giving money to the company that engages in this kind of behavior. And that money contributes to them developing more intrusive tools like this that target consumers of their products who do not have the requisite technical acumen to prevent the TV from phoning home.

In other words, by buying an adware TV and disabling the adware, you're still supporting the adware company instead of just buying a TV without adware in the first place.

I have a Vizio TV that's never been on the internet. I've never opened its apps and don't know what it is I'm avoiding. Given my other product requirements for a TV, eliminating all that have smart apps would probably leave me with no choices.

Ironically I have a Samsung phone because I wouldn't give money to Google for hardware. We're just surrounded and choosing the lesser of various evils every day.

> eliminating all that have smart apps would probably leave me with no choices

I really don't understand why otherwise tech-savvy users start acting like generic deer-in-the-headlights consumer tropes when faced with the prospect of TV sets. All you have to do is a basic web query for "best dumb TVs" and you'll find sites listing all manner of models and options.

I just looked at two of those lists and 100% of the options listed were from companies that also make smart TVs, which violates what you said: "you are still giving money to the company that engages in this kind of behavior".

I don't mind if they sell a bunch of smart TVs where they never capture the revenue they expect from apps, and it hurts their conversion and engagement metrics.

It's not.

For example when pausing a Hulu stream on my Samsung TV....I'll get an ad for random crap (sometimes for things placed in a show) ok my pause screen.

Samsung TVs are basically giant billboard you pay to have in your home.

> Samsung TVs are basically giant billboard you pay to have in your home.

You say this, and yet you have one in your home. And this contradiction is why these things continue to thrive: because even people who care...also don't care.

People like me are stuck. Not like we can return the TV's after years of owning them.

You could sell it on the secondary market (either whole or piecemeal) and use the money towards purchasing an alternate?

If that's Samsung interjecting onto other apps, that's horrible. I guess if it's Hulu it's still horrible, but feels less chaotic and it's easier to reason about whether the Hulu value prop alone is worthwhile given the price vs. ads.

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