This is a translation of a foreign article, so there may be mistranslations.
https://www.flatpanelshd.com/news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1775729813
Your Smart TV May Be Crawling the Web While You Watch Movies.
Would you allow your smart TV to crawl the web for AI learning and other purposes to save money or see fewer ads, or without any compensation at all? You may already be doing so.
This practice has been documented by a report from Lowpass.
According to reports, this has been going on for some time on platforms like Fire TV and Roku, and Amazon, Google, and Roku have begun cracking down on a network called 'IPIDEA'. This network enrolled millions of smart TVs in a proxy bot network to crawl the web and was also rented to hacking groups from China, North Korea, Iran, and Russia.
Residential Proxy Networks
While IPIDEA is no longer allowed on Fire TV, Roku, and Google TV, it is unclear whether it is still operating on LG's webOS and Samsung's Tizen.
In the meantime, a new residential proxy network called 'Bright Data' has emerged. This network uses registered smart TVs to crawl and extract web page data including audio and video, then sends it to Bright Data's cloud servers.
Numerous smart TVs in living rooms are used to bypass IP address blocks connected to AI data centers. Each smart TV has a unique IP address, making it difficult to block botnets.
According to Lowpass, Ariel Shulman, Chief Product Officer of Bright Data, said two years ago, "We do not do any kind of tracking," adding "We operate quietly in the background, and completely anonymously. Users don't actually see or feel anything."
We are skeptical of the claim that this does not impact performance. Smart TVs tend to slow down over time, and in some cases, Bright Data appears to be able to run even when users are not actively using specific apps they have agreed to in the terms of service. It can also start as soon as the smart TV is turned on.
In return, users may be offered fewer ads or discounted pricing on streaming services.
Bright Data's on-screen message displayed in the 'Petflix' app reads as follows: "To enjoy Petflix for free with fewer ads, you will allow Bright Data to occasionally download public web data from the internet using your device's spare resources and IP address. Bright Data uses your IP address only for approved business-related cases. It does not access or collect any personal information other than your IP address. That's all."
Will You Allow This?
Amazon, Google, and Roku also appear to have restricted the use of Bright Data and other residential proxy networks in app SDKs (software development kits) for Fire TV, Google TV, and Roku OS devices.
However, according to Lowpass's report, Bright Data still lists LG's webOS and Samsung's Tizen as partners. For webOS, over 200 apps are listed.
Between ACR (Automatic Content Recognition), ads, and proxy networks running on TVs, there are many valid reasons to reconsider whether you should be using smart TVs for streaming. You might consider streaming boxes with better privacy protection and performance, such as Apple TV 4K.
▶ Original source: https://www.flatpanelshd.com/news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1775729813
