Privacy Fears Drive Consumers to Smash, Gut Smart TVs — SkimNews
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- Dan, a 71-year-old Illinois man with a master's degree in computer science and decades in telecommunications, smashed his smart TV screen with a rock after it downloaded its third update in three days and kept pushing paid subscription services.
- Matthew Schroyer, a Connecticut software engineer, keeps his TV disconnected from wifi entirely and routes content through an Apple TV box, declaring his living room 'is not a billboard for sale.'
- Helen Northmore, who works in AI delivery for the UK Health Security Agency, paid a premium for a TV without smart functionality but says such models have become nearly impossible to find and dreads the day her current one dies.
- Paul, an Australian public servant, spent three weeks hunting for a replacement after his 10-year-old dumb TV broke and found only a single dusty 40-inch dumb model in the back of a shop for about $200.
- The UK government released a September media green paper planning to move away from digital terrestrial television to broadband-delivered services by 2034 at the earliest, while Australia launched a parallel consultation on free-to-air broadcasting proposing to cut traditional broadcast in favor of streaming and on-demand apps.
- YouTube channel Gamers Nexus released a two-hour September investigation claiming LG smart televisions record audio even when offline or powered down; LG Electronics denied the allegations.
- James, a father originally from the US now living in British Columbia, used a craft knife to scrape the microphone sensor off his TV remote after reading online advice, saying he's protecting his young children from having private moments overheard and monetized.
Why it matters: The buried policy threat: if the UK and Australia follow through on plans to end terrestrial broadcasting by 2034 in favor of broadband-delivered services, consumers like Northmore who specifically distrust connected screens lose their last mainstream route to watching TV without surrendering data to manufacturers.
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