This is because as soon as a monitor is connected to a Windows computer, it automatically installs both the LG Monitor App Installer and McAfee Scam Detector without ever asking the user for permission.
Is this not a felony under U.S. law? Computer hacking has HUGE criminal liability.
Name something you do as a corporation to avoid any laws or accountability with the current administration
BRIBE THE DOJ
let’s see if that answer’s on the board…survey says…!
DING
It’s actually windows doing it
Another win for Linux
The more I learn about windows the more I wish I would’ve ditched it a long time ago instead of last month…
It probably says somewhere in the ToS, which is still a fucking disgrace that those exists, without having to make clear and obvious bullet points you click “consent”.
Even having to make consent multiple times should be mandatory for every shit they try to do.
Solution if users shouldnt hit consent multiple times? Dont do shady shit.
I can’t remember the specifics right now, but in Gamers Nexus video from yesterday, according to LG ToS you must disclose something regarding spying and wiretapping laws to your family and anyone visiting your house
Literally insane that you can even put that in an agreement to being with.
I have a plan: we pass a law that any contract intended for the public (ToS, various other terms and conditions, privacy policies, etc) must be at the average reading level of the American public. We’ll either incentivize better education or better contracts. Maybe both!
Doesnt matter if it’s in kindergarten level reading, as long as it’s a few paragraphs long, people will accept it.
Or standardize agreements that can be agreed to with just clicks so you can tell what’s up from just seeing which agreement modules are included and what parameters they have (along with a bunch of sites that explain them in easier terms for the less literate, which will be useful because they are standards used by many agreements rather than needing a unique one for each version of each document).
Apparently it’s windows doing it. Not the monitor via the HDMI or something. I guess that’s what you get for using windows.
Yep. Windows installs manufacturer “helper” apps automatically like drivers. Got a Logitech mouse? You probably have a Logitech app in there you never asked for too because you plugged it in.
Stop using windows.
I don’t use windows
I think that was more of a PSA for other people reading along.
Stop using Windows.
lol jk. I’m glad that we here all ditched Windows. amirite or amirite?..
Than this won’t affect you
I had to go and find the Logitech app and install it myself. Otherwise it just used the minimal drivers that were built into windows.
Maybe wired mice and those without rainbow barf behave differently.
I’ve got a corsair rainbow barfer and I also had to install its control program manually. Mileage probably varies by manufacturer, most likely.
Soon-to-be-illegal-tooltip: openRGB is a thing.
OOOH! Can we manually add entries for unwanted software to windows defender?
Just a reminder that terms of service or any other contract never override law
Also, implied consent is not consent, and if there is no consent, the entire contract is unenforceable and therefore void.
Let me guess, proprietary drivers cause this and the open source or generic drivers lack “functionality”.
If it turns on, reaches its peek resolution and refresh rate that is good enough for me, I genuinely can care less for HDR or the nitty gritty features.
Monitors don’t need drivers. Your GPU needs drivers, and you might need color correction for your monitor.
Microslop decided that any device that is plugged in might need drivers. They allow device manufacturers to specify an arbitrary program to be downloaded and executed by Windows Update, any time a device they make is plugged in.
And if that driver/software does evil or is so poorly written it meets driver verification but exposes vulnerabilities, how is that Microsoft’s fault
Microsoft is the company that approved the software to automatically download and run as admin when a specific device is plugged in. The OEM submitted malware and Microsoft approved it. Both are at fault for letting malware download and run on your device.
In the case of vulnerabilities, MS is fully aware of this happening frequently and has announced they want to do something about it, but hasn’t actually done anything about it.
Old monitors need it for absolutely nothing, like my 2020 LG. Every feature works out of the box, because it has to over display cables.
I think at most it adds an ICC profile, but it’s not matched to the panel anyway and you can just install that seperately.
No, no no. That’s only if you do it. If a huge corporation does it, see, that’s different. Corporations are “people” for the purposes of free speech (with money) or even voting (example), but when it comes time to throw somebody in jail for overtly criminal behavior, all of the sudden the legal system can’t find anyone to target.
Ironic
This is 100% also Microsoft fault and they are to be held accountable for this. With many drivers it can happen that one manufacturer goes rogue, but Microsoft needs to have a zero tolerance policy for this: do it once and your signature is permanently revoked for all your drivers
LG is on my permanent vendor shitlist for related reasons.
I wish we would stop using smart to describe surveillance technology. Smart sounds nicez but there’s nothing smart about it…
That is the neat thing about language, it adapts. Euphemisms wear off and something like “smart device” increasingly sounds like “nasty anti-consumer surveillance home appliance” all by itself.
you need popular public sentiment for that. most people just shrug it off if even that
I have an LG TV that has never been exposed to the internet and it’s amazing.
Same! I jailbroke mine and can watch YouTube and Twitch ad-free, and it’s got Jellyfin on the homebrew channel, so I can access my server off my TV :)
Omg you can jailbreak smart TVs now? HELL yeah
EDIT: I am especially interested in LG webOS because I was a Palm Prē enjoyer back in the day and I rooted the fuck out of that phone (still have it somewhere)
Check out rootmy.tv to jailbreak your LG smart TV. Depending on the model and firmware, there could be additional steps you need to take, but in my case, since I still had the stock firmware installed, it was just a single slide of a button on the TV’s web browser.
So are there downsides to rooting? Like do the apps no longer work or is there functionality limited?
I’m running pinhole on my network currently so I think most if not all of the bad LG behavior is restricted and I use a Shield for most things, but I’m still tempted to root it anyway. Just want to know the downsides, if any, before I update my family’s TV
I’m probably an unsuitable person to ask this since my TV is basically a glorified monitor, but from what I could tell there are no downsides except for the obvious one being that I can’t update my TV. But considering much bloat and spying is going on with (LG) smart TVs, I don’t mind it all.
I use Twitch, YouTube, and Jellyfin on mine, and it’s been awesome. I hadn’t used any other functionality or apps the TV comes with before rooting and I likely won’t in the future. So even if some of them didn’t work, I couldn’t care less.
Maybe do some research and find out for your specific model?
I had to put malicious mp3 files on a USB for my newer C2, but my older C8 was rooted in the browser
malicious mp3 files on a USB
LOL, this is hilarious, while simultaneously infuriating that the owners of hardware are required to install a Trojan Horse to uninstall the malicious software installed by the manufacturer.
Thanks so much for the rootmy.tv recommendation, exactly what I need but didn’t know to look for!
on my 5+ year old TVs that didn’t work. you need a developer account, an app, and a few commands over SSH
That phone was the coolest thing, it’s such a shame how it died. I’ve still got mine lol, I can get it to boot and play that one flight sim game you could buy on the app store.
You don’t even need to jailbreak LG ones, just enable developer mode, install webosbrew, and install things like youtube adfree and space cadet pinball
That’s awesome. Mine is 42" and I’m using it as my monitor for my desktop. I had no idea you could jailbreak TVs now, what a time to be alive. I recently picked up a Raspberry Pi 5 and I’m planning on using it to replace my stupid Chromecast on my living room TV. As long as the Pi can stream from my Jellyfin server and watch YouTube then that’s all I need.
There’s a website called rootmy.tv that can help you find or execute roots right off the TV’s web browser. When I bought the TV, I hadn’t connected it to the Internet a single time, so it still had the stock firmware. I could just type in the URL and click a single button - that’s it. Depending on the firmware, model and brand, this could look different for you. Also I’m not sure if this only works for LG TVs - might have to do some research to find a suitable method for yours.
That also sounds very practical. I’d love to get into Pis sometime, but the RAM fiasco is making them quite expensive for my current budget, sadly.
This is it. Skip all the setup screens and just use it
I went through the nonsense of putting the LG tv and some other stuff on a separate network that has no internet access but I can still connect to them. It’s annoying that’s needed.
That won’t save you. It’ll still install the driver if its hooked to Windows.
It will install the drivers… through HDMI? I don’t think so.
No, I just mean windows update will pull an LG “driver” and install it to your system automatically when it detects the display.
So, I don’t get this; if you let it install the drivers and then uninstall the drivers and use it, will it just keep reinstalling the drivers with each next connection?
Apart from the obviously superior solution of switching to Linux, would someone need to connect while fully offline to prevent it from installing drivers and just watch predownloaded stuff (or play games offline) or what?
By default? Maybe.
But there are both global and granular Windows policies to tweak this. I disabled the device driver specifically, as I do like plug-and-play for other devices.
My LG TV is just so old it isn’t allowed to connect anymore lol. I just keep my old gaming laptop connected and it’s a far better experience then any modern smart TV with all the image smoothing junk.
As much as I’d like a bigger TV with OLED, I’ll be sticking with my old Toshiba dumb TV. It’s good enough and doesn’t even know the internet exists.
Straight to the list of things “I will never buy in my life”.
Yeah, Same here honestly
My wife and I bought a TV on the internet. What brand? I have no idea but it’s the type they have in waiting rooms and restaurants. Zero internet. Zero apps. You push the button and it turns on. It’s the best fucking purchase we’ve made in the last five years.
I recently purchased a current year TCL, I don’t remember the model number but it’s the one right under their flagship.
It’s 75" and is the most beautiful tv I’ve owned. Fast, almost OLED levels of dimming, I’m in awe when watching the right content.
I’d pay an extra $500 for a version with no smart capabilities. Let me turn it on and boot into my android box, or console, or whatever.
Got ours second hand from a buy nothing group. It has no apps. It doesn’t know what the internet is. It has D-SUB and RCA ports. It’s perfect
Where’d you find it?
Look for “digital signage” displays - but beware that some of those are “smart TVs” too.
Amazon, unfortunately.
Commercial displays are like that. I have a couple that haven been decom’d from work I use. They don’t have speakers but I don’t need those anyway
A lot of commercial displays are smart now too.
For the PC Monitor issue: To prevent this sort of behavior. Open Group Policy Editor Computer Configuration>Administrative Templates>System>Device Installation Prevent automatic downloads of applications associated with device metadata = Set to Enable.
To get rid of it once installed you have to remove it from the Windows Store since it’s an app, not an installed program. For me, this was not possible as there was no way presented to uninstall it in the app store. I had to do it from terminal with this command, which could vary a bit depending on the exact app version:
Remove-AppxPackage LGElectronics.LGMonitorApp_1.2606.1601.0_x86__cfnzzhwkr8z5w
Keep in mind this will disable plug-and-play for other devices one plugs in.
Which is excellent, from a security standpoint, but something to be cognizant of.
You can search for it by the appx name and then use a pipe to remove the package. Then you don’t need to worry about specific version numbers:
Get-AppxPackage -Name ‘LGElectronics.LGMonitorApp’ | Remove-AppxPackage
store apps can also be uninstalled from the settings app.
for the first setting, it’s easier to turn that and more off with o&o shutup10
store apps can also be uninstalled from the settings app.
Also using winget.
Tried going through this with my grandma on video call. She asked: “why is there a police group in my computer?”
Lol, “monitor” app, because it monitors users.
Im sorry. Im drunk.
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Does anyone make dumb TVs anymore? Seems like there’s a sizable market for it. I haven’t had a TV in 6 years and want one for local channels, but I really don’t want a smart TV.
I just never gave my smart TV network info. It’s at the factory settings and can’t connect to anything. If there isn’t a console connected to it then it is useless. Just like the good ole days.
They still have ways to connect, though they’re lower bandwidth and less reliable.
How?
You didn’t connect your Samsung smart TV, but your neighbor did, and they connect over a second separate Samsung™©® network that you and your neighbor both ‘consented’ to in the Eula’s, where media fingerprints and timestamps are exchanged updated, etc during downtime. Evil mesh networks, basically.
Or Sony™, or rjfyjdokfdrlvdgjg™, or whatever.
That’s really interesting and very plausible. I’d never considered it.
Documented. Forget where.
I wish Lemmy had a ban list and post/thread removal list. It’d make it easier to know what’s allowed here.
just get a smart one and never connect it online
ok how can I watch anything then?
Plug your own devices in with HDMI.
assuming you have a coax cable connection on it, mount an antenna, go to settings and find a channel scanner to run
They still access and provide a route through your wifi.
What? How would they do that if they are never connected to WiFi in the first place?
They still talk and connect if you want them to or not. The “permissions” is mostly for the apps to talk back and forth. It is still usable by anyone who knows how.
Smart TVs do not magically connect to your WiFi without credentials.
Now if there is an open WiFi available, that might be a way or if the TV has a deal with a carrier to use all that open automatic WiFi.
A bit more technical details please. How do the connect to what? It sounds a bit like they can just magically connect via telepathy to their home base if you phrase it like that.
It sounds a bit like they can just magically connect via telepathy to their home base if you phrase it like that.
Its not that difficult, scan for open wifi, if detected, connect, phone home to spy central.
The more sinister, each tv that successfully detects a connection to spy central broadcasts a 2nd wifi that the tv can scan for and connect similar to mesh networking.
There are tons of reasons to want a network connected monitor, the problem is no-one seems interested in producing one without the spyware. I’d love a 40”+ device that supported rtsp, etc but until enough people step up and boycott all this spy crap it’ll never be worth producing better devices. 😞
Mh, yeah I see the possibility of using an open network in theory, but in practice I haven’t seen a open Wifi network in years (excluding business owned ones, but usually you need to confirm something there and can’t use them forever). So not sure how feasible that is. The more sinister option is done by Echo devices for example (that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Sidewalk), but also requires a second device nearby. Much more possible possible though, if similar devices are nearby. But that can’t be hidden anyway and it should be possible to check for that.
I feel like the best option to get the monitor network connected is still a secondary device and never using the built in firmware (and first checking if said device got things like you described).
I’m confused; are you suggesting the TVs ship with an embedded SIM?
not if you dont connect it. of course my “smart” tv allows that, your’s may not. they all will bitch and moan about turning it on when first set up but you should be able to ignore it or set it up “later”
Sceptre seems to be the only company makinh consumer-grade dumb TVs.
There is, its called industrial tv “iiyama” for example is a brand of those
I’ve looked into these in the past. Unfortunately, they are extremely dated TVs that are visually and aesthetically unpleasing.
You should just get a smart TV which allows setting it up without wi-fi instead.
All of this is true but I really hate the headline. Headlines for this SHOULD SAY “Microsoft’s Windows update feature is distributing adware.”
Both LG and Microsoft share responsibility. LG for doing it and Microsoft for allowing it.
This has been going on forever, though. I had an Asus motherboard that literally installed adware, and an even older Sony laptop that topped it.
How can a monitor install stuff on a PC? Can you do that over hdmi/dp? Does it require usb?
Either way, this stuff should be illegal or at least require a much more explicit warning than hiding it in terms of service that nobody reads. And of course everybody would do well to avoid LG out of principle from now on.
Saw the video by Gamers Nexus and basically Windows auto installs an LG Driver utility that has ads.
Razer mice have some crapware that auto-installs on Windows now, through windows update. Their official driver that it downloads adds the crap and Microsoft just lets it do it all.
No such hassles on Linux though.
Windows update, by default, is set to automatically download and install the malware for them when the HDMI cable is connected to the computer, within less than a minute.
It’s pretty much impossible to buy a dumb TV nowadays. It’s much easier to disconnect a smart TV from the internet using a firewall.
Or don’t add it to your network
Jellyfin app works really well on LG TVs. I think it’s the app that gives me the least issues of all the ones I’ve used. I find it much easier to use than pluging in a laptop. In other scenario external computer may be the best option.
Not impossible, several options are still out there if you actually search for “non smart TV” on retailers’ websites.
Sceptre was one brand that made decent non-smart TVs but they seem to be vanishing off the market now. Many used ones still on ebay and other secondhand markets. Their website still shows a bunch of TV models but the retail links turn up empty.
I searched and didn’t find anything in Europe. And that was couple of years ago already. Maybe there are some sources I don’t know about but I didn’t find any in typical stores.
I’ve had a “smart” TV for about 4 years. It keeps asking to update the firmware.
No. Effin’. Way.
It’s just going to install more and more spyware, bloatware, and find a way to charge me for something I didn’t have to pay for before.
And thus vulnerabilities are introduced. Either by not updating the FW, or by updating the FW.
The odds of someone attacking my tv via the internet are as close to zero that “never gonna happen” is just about right. If it did happen, it would be because they went via the server maintainer for the firmware to attack all the TVs, and if they did that then an updated firmware would just as likely be a culprit.
