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Comment by spike021

6 days ago

I've had the advertising settings disabled on my LG C2 for a while and yesterday I decided to browse the settings menu again and found that a couple new ones had been added and turned on by default.

Good times.

64 comments

spike021

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pton_xd  6 days ago

This is what seemingly every app does. They add 15 different categories for notifications / emails / whatever, and then make you turn off each one individually. Then they periodically remove / add new categories, enabled by default. Completely abusive behavior.

  • wmeredith  6 days ago

    Want to unsubscribe from this email? Ok, you can do it in one click, but we have 16 categories of emails we send you, so you'll still get the other 15! It's a dark pattern for sure.

    • jrootabega  6 days ago

      And if you just add them to your spam filter, it won't even work easily, because they deliberately shift around the domains and subdomains they send from every so often.

      10 replies →

    • bux93  5 days ago

      Thanks again for unsubscribing! This is your weekly reminder that you are still unsubscribed. As usual, we've included a little bonus for you to enjoy at the end of this unsubscribe-reminder e-mail: a complementary full edition of this week's newsletter!

  • ipython  6 days ago

    Yep. Had that happen with the United app a few weeks ago. Unsolicited spam sent via push notification to my phone. Turns out that they added a bunch of notification settings - of course all default to on.

    Turned them all off except for trip updates that day.

    Best part is- yesterday I received yet another unsolicited spam push message. With all the settings turned off.

    So these companies will effective require you to use their app to use their service, then refuse to respect their own settings for privacy.

    • vlachen  6 days ago

      I've taken to "Archiving" apps like this on my Android phone. When I need it, I can un-archive it to use it. Keeps the list of things trying to get my attention a little bit smaller.

      7 replies →

    • itopaloglu83  5 days ago

      Sending ad notifications is a recent trend, normally Apple guidelines don’t allow it, but they know that Apple cannot much fuss about with all the regulatory pressure.

      It’s the enshitification of the notification system, the apps are already filled with ads and now they’re making you open the app or splash things on your face.

  • josephg  6 days ago

    When I get email like that, I mark it as spam. That trains the spam filters to remove their marketing email from everyone's inbox. I see it as a community service.

  • hansvm  6 days ago

    That behavior is what finally got me off Facebook awhile back.

    Edit: And something similar with Windows now that I think about it; there was a privacy setting which would appear to work till you re-entered that menu. Saving the setting didn't actually persist it, and the default was not consumer-friendly.

  • fragmede  6 days ago

    I especially like how they add it to the bottom of a widget with hidden scrollbars, just to make it totally missable that they added them at all!

babypuncher  6 days ago

The real trick is to never connect your TV to the internet under any circumstances. These things are displays, they don't need the internet to do their job. Leave that to the game consoles and streaming boxes.

  • m463  6 days ago

    I worry about the new cellular standards that support large scale iot.

    Search for 5g miot or 5g massive iot or maybe even 5g redcap

    • aerostable_slug  6 days ago

      Existing LTE is fine. If they wanted to embed modems in the TVs they could do it now. I'm guessing they simply don't have to, simply because a huge number of consumers will dutifully hand over their Wi-Fi passwords.

    • sailfast  6 days ago

      While this is certainly possible, I’d imagine this sort of thing would be found quite quickly and would result in a massive lawsuit if not disclosed on the package.

  • spike021  6 days ago

    It's going to happen on any device. It's a software thing. If LG isn't doing it, it's Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc. My PS5 basically shows ads on some system ui screens (granted mostly for "game" content but it still counts).

steve_adams_86  6 days ago

I have a Hisense TV which recently did the same. It turned on personal recommendations and advertising. I have no idea where the ads are or how it works; I only use devices over HDMI. I'm sure the TV is spying on me incessantly nonetheless.

BloondAndDoom  6 days ago

I’m using my tv with all the stuff disabled (the ones it’s possibly disable), but even then I realize I don’t trust them and I don’t trust their choices. Because they get to say sorry and not held responsible.

I want smart tv because I want use my streaming services but that’s it. I also want high quality panels. Maybe the solution is high quality TVs where you just stick a custom HDMI device (similar to Amazon fire stick) and use it as the OS. Not sure if there are good open source options since Apple seems to be another company that keeps showing you ads even if you pay shit load of money for their hardware and software, Jobs must turning in his grave

myself248  6 days ago

I call this Zucking.

When a new permission appears without notice and defaults to the most-violating setting, gaslighting you into the illusion of agency but in fact you never had any, you've been Zucked.

thinkingtoilet  5 days ago

I literally only buy computer monitors for TVs. No nonsense. Yeah, they're usually a bit more expensive but at least it doesn't spy on me.

xnx  5 days ago

Same behavior seen with spam email. You unsubscribe from one "list", but you're added to infinity new ones.