Smart TV spying backlash: users throw rocks and DIY-neuter their TVs
CarissaVeliz · x · 2026-10-26
The Guardian documents rising anger over smart TV privacy abuses. Dan, 71, an Illinois man with a CS master's and decades in telecoms, threw a rock through his screen after it pushed three useless updates in three days and nagged him to subscribe to services. "The tech is not intimidating," he says, "just increasingly enshittified."
Key points:
- Smart TVs gained OSes, apps and ads since the late 2000s; cheap models proliferate but struggle under advanced features;
- Users report TVs listening to conversations and serving highly invasive ads;
- Frustration has sparked a DIY movement: opening up and neutering the living-room black rectangles.
Privacy scholar Carissa Véliz shared the piece.
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