In case anyone missed it. Personally I won’t ever trust this company again and I’m glad I bet on the Home Assistant ‘horse’ and not the other popular choice in my country: Homey. Unfortunately I do own a G5 OLED, but have disabled to built in microphone and blocked its network access.
This is a good idea regardless of the manufacturer. Samsung is absolutely doing the exact same stuff. Other than the Apple TV idk any smart tv / smart tv device thats not spying on you unless you build it yourself.
There is a reason why TV’s are SOOO cheap.
Like every other device with a connection to the internet then. 
Why are people surprised when an IOT devices calls home with information? Read the small print on the device you bought…
That’s part of the problem, it’s 40,000 words to scroll through with the D-pad 
Are they really?
Yesterday I stopped by ikea and they were selling some very cheap matter tech - but not saying everywhere that commissioning matter is cloud depended 
Obviously I did not fall for the $3 matter trap 
Also the LG is premium csa-iot (matter) member that “enjoy all benefits plus a seat on the Alliance Board of Directors" for just a little over $100k/ano - what could possible go wrong? 
Yeah, most people are not yet aware that “Matter device” does not necessarily mean “cloud-free product.”
Just look at the corporations backing Matter and know that it’s not going to go well for you.
Quite the opposite. Deploying/commissioning a matter device is cloud dependent and cryptographically secured by the owners (not the buyer 
).
Technically the Distributed Cloud Compliance Ledger (DCL) blockchain backed together with secure boot does not allow ownership over matter devices. 
LG - enshitificated
Samsung - enshitificated
Amazon - enshitificated
Google…
And all these ones “lead the Alliance with final approval on all standards” 
The new Gold-rush is data harvest from the most abundant source on the planet, people… and it’s cheaper than air to them big corps, because -guess what- you pay.
They also have govs in their back pocket decades ago.
“Smart home, iot” is an excellent trojan horse, would you pass on this opportunity?
Do you think AI is not another harvester?
The biggest the profit, the less ethics involved.
We just want the bathroom lights to come on automatically, they have to know how many times you sh!t and if they’re still brown.
But they own the “brown” before you produce it, so they know your medication before you need it.
Just rumble, I don’t wear tinfoil hat, it causes rf interference to my diy sensors!
Here’s an idea: use a local (Zigbee, Z-Wave, ESPHome) smart plug for your TV. Power it off when not watching.
I’m amazed that we’ve come to this. I’m actually OK with advertising, and companies collecting data which helps them maintain and improve their products.
But it’s gone way too far. Phone apps with ads which take over the whole screen and scream at you full-volume, with no way to close them. Every “smart” device in your home watching every move and listening to every word, then shipping it all back to their servers.
Oddly enough, I’m less disappointed in the companies doing this than the people who shrug and buy the products anyway. Even Google figured out that there’s no value in trying to follow the “Don’t be Evil” philosophy if nobody cares. People continue to buy enshitified products and tolerate shrinkflation. I could expand this same “we get what we deserve” rant to politics, but I think you get the idea. It’s all just accepted as OK.
It’s surreal. I’m not really sure what sort of world I’m living in, and why it seems like I’m in a very slim minority who cares. I’m trying hard to resist joining the tin-foil-hat crowd. But it’s not getting any easier.
HA has been a beacon of hope in all this. I hope a corporate mentality never takes hold there.
Indeed, but it’s far worse than just a harvester because it can be used to manipulate and control on an individual level.
I watched Hinton (the so called “Godfather of AI”) on TV talking nonsense about AI, after saying that he uses chatbots everyday and is smarter with them than without. Some of his statements about it, including that one, betray a lack of understanding. He was also not aware of the full story behind recent claims - shown to be lies - about AI producing a particular mathematical proof.
Who would be surprised to learn that these corporations are already be using them to influence key figures such as Hinton. They’re already untouchable so 
This may seem a digression, but it’s all part of a larger accelerating move to control and dominate the population. We’ve moved from selling through manipulation and have entered a very different phase in which AI and wider surveillance go hand in hand.
If these systems know you better than you do yourself, and you choose to expose yourself to them, you are going to be easy meat.
So yes, be aware of surveillance in your home and push back to protect yourself, but be aware that it is so widespread that you can’t really avoid it, it info what’s already been collected about you - especially when it is hidden inside an LLM model.
So you also need to reconsider if, when and how you expose yourself to this tech. Personally I avoid using things created using it, and don’t engage with it when I can avoid doing so. There are many good reasons not to, and this is only one.
What ?, which apps do you install on your phone, that does that ?
Just for those that don’t understand the reference: Athom, the company behind Homey, is 80% owned by LG (and will be 100%-owned by LG in 2027 at the latest).
In the press release announcing the acquisition, LG has literally stated that “This integration will provide LG with deeper insights into customer usage patterns and expedite the delivery of personalized services”.
It would be naive to think that Homey, as a platform, will not be used for this. Even though the founders of Athom have stated that this won’t happen, when you sell a majority of your shares in your company you stop being relevant to decision making.
As a former Homey user (I switched to HA many years ago) I still maintain a few apps for the platform, and was recently made aware of the fact that my apps are being distributed (without my consent) through LG-owned app stores, for example the ThinQ PLAY store.
I’ve asked Athom about this, and specifically told them that I don’t want my apps to be used on devices that are, or can be, used to, to paraphrase, spy on its users. As of yet I haven’t yet received a satisfactory answer, which suggests to me that Athom might have a difficult time trying to explain to LG that this reflects badly on them. Which is what happens when you have sold control of your company.
None. This “feature” is always added later. Then I delete the app.
My only point was, people just don’t seem to care. Spy on them, blast ads at them, force a subscription on them, shrink or enshitify the product, whatever. They’ll just keep buying the it. I’ll never understand why.
Athom is now called IoTorero and works with HA 
People may be OK with companies spying on them through IOT. After all they just want to improve their products and advertise to you. What if its your government or your employer?
Or someone elses government or employer?
And phones 
So apple (and google) is doing the same as LG 
Different Athom.
True. Athom Tech (now IoTorero) does sell ESPHome products that don’t phone home and allow full ownership (including right to extend/repair). On the other hand we have Athom owned by LG which is owning “promoting” matter/csa-iot while having the last word on matters
LG executives saying either “We own the glass”, “we own the TV”, or both.
LG’s own marketing pitch to businesses says that “we know who’s in the LG household. We know which devices are there. We know what you’re exposed to on TV and we know how to extend that reach into mobile.”
No wonder we have matter the way it is (cloud dependency for commissioning..) with such great companies shaping it like LG, Google, Samsung…
