Huh... it's always nice to see Texas do something right for once.
this post was submitted on 28 Dec 2025
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Something something something....... broken clock
IMO the problem is where the pictures go. If they were American companies they would not care at all.
Articles are like this are weird where they warn of what China can do with this data, but somehow the Fascists States of Assholia can be trusted.
The whole world needs to abandon surveilance tech.
It's not that your own country can be trusted, but another country can use it to harm another country.
The US government has no problem harming US citizens if it suits their needs.
The US government doesn't want China or any other country harming its citizens or the country though unless they are in on it.
It's the same all around the world.
The US government is happy to harm anyone worldwide. China wants that power. The US wants to be the only one.
Most other countries do not.
There isn't a single country out there that isn't trying to gather information that could be used to harm another country. Some more than others, but literally everyone does this. In turn, every country tries to defend against other countries doing it to them.
Some more than other, sure.
In turn, every country tries to defend against other countries doing it to them.
The world accepted US surveilance tech when it was believed to be a nation of laws and is only now starting to regret it. When Canada built Blackberry, it was actually secure by default and countries like India would not let it into their market until government backdoors were installed so they could spy on their own people.
I didn't know Blackberry did that... but I hope India understood that if they made a backdoor India could use, then Canada and Blackberry could use it to hah... and uhhh you know Canada would ultimately share that with the USA (at least back then) if needed as part of five eyes.
It is possible to build admin privileges that are restricted to others.
Uhhh, heard of EU Chat Control?
Can't wait until someone tells them about Windows 11.
it will just record you the whole time.
How long ago was it that someone would say there is secret recording technology capturing screenshots of what I watch on TV, sending it up to third parties, including the Govt, and selling it to others? You would be labelled as crazy. The boiling frog approach to build a surveillance prison around everyone while they just accept it is fascinating.
Not too long ago.
But when you set up things like AdGuard at home, you'll quickly see that most people are probably not nearly paranoid enough. I work in IT, and even others in IT that should in theory know better think I'm being too paranoid to use various protections when using the 'net.
I don't even have that many IoT devices in my house or enshittified products like Alexa, etc...and something like 20+% of DNS queries are blocked in my house...
I have Samsung in my house and of course they were known for being the worst/earliest offender when it came to "smart TVs", but they are hardly the only one. Certainly you can do a lot to block them, but I am quite sure most people never even bother.
It would have been crazy in the CRT age and maybe the early LCD age. But then we got screens that require significant electronics to even be able to show an image, built into smart internet-connected TV’s which sometimes also have microphones and cameras built in. At the same time we also kind of dropped actual TV, and switched to streaming, where the streaming provider automatically and necessarily knows exactly what you watch, when you’re awake, what languages you speak, and so on.
Which IMHO makes it even more crazy to say it. Like why would a sane person say any of this is secret.
10-15 years
The Texas Attorney General sued five major television manufacturers, accusing them of illegally collecting their users' data by secretly recording what they watch using Automated Content Recognition (ACR) technology.
The lawsuits target Sony, Samsung, LG, and China-based companies Hisense and TCL Technology Group Corporation. Attorney General Ken Paxton's office also highlighted "serious concerns" about the two Chinese companies being required to follow China's National Security Law, which could give the Chinese government access to U.S. consumers' data.
Well good on you Texas for taking the initiative.
So to be clear, this is the right thing for the wrong reason. If Westinghouse still made TVs and they were doing this too, I would bet a year’s salary that they wouldn’t be included in the suit (as long as they were shoving their data in a US data center).
Oh absolutely. This seems very "country" dependent.
Still a right thing to do.
Wait until Texas learns that their trucks track everywhere they go and how long they stay there
And license plate readers.
whose trucks? their personal ones? arent phones already doing that lol on top of a lot more shit
Someone forgot to pay their bribe.