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Comment by anonymousab | Hacker News Reader

There were a few TV models a couple of years ago that would stop working after enough time without a network connection. When they reconnect, they're clearly going to download a new cache of ads and transmit their existing tracking data.

It's easy to assume that they'll eventually require an unabridged connection to their own servers for updates, and they will simply send all ad data through the same routes such that you can't block one without blocking the other.

This is too lucrative for manufacturers to pass up. The added complexity also ads more points of failure and drives faster industry-wide consumer upgrade cycles. This is not something that will be fixed in the market alone.

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Not quite as bad as that, but since I took my Sony TV offline it regularly reboots itself (when "off") and sometimes needs a "hard" start via the physical power button as the remote on has become unresponsive. I strongly suspect that it's just badly coded, going mad trying to connect to resources that don't exist, filling logs, etc. then failing over.

I so want tracked advertising in all of its forms to be outlawed.

I can see manufacturers embedding a LTE radio/lorawan/whatever into the devices. Not connecting the device to the internet wont be an option in the future for most consumers.

I give it 15 years or so for the tech to mature.

Silly consumer, you need to install the 5g box closer to your family room

My guess is that it will pick up an ATSC signal which it already has a tuner for.

Ads will play at 3AM and the TV will just record.

Or push it through some kind of subcarrier data signal.

TV will be able to triangulate its location by multilateration of ATSC/DVB-T signals. West end of the city will play different ads than east end.

It’ll just share ads over Bluetooth with your refrigerator that won’t turn the compressor on unless it has a connection to the server, so it can determine your cooling subscription is still up to date.

You could do it with the helium network now. That's a specific reason to avoid helium - it's the closest to a ubiquitous network that will let people spy on your use of ordinary electrical appliances. Unlike TVs, your next fridge won't need an internet connection to spy on your use.

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