That's what I thought we well, but TFA seems to suggest that some TVs may overlay ads on top of any video source:
"Vizio collected a selection of pixels on the screen and matched them to an existing database of content to find out what a user was watching and when"
"pop-ups would reportedly appear halfway through the show and be injected into the users' own content, such as home videos"
Cue the responses confidently dismissing the issue because there is some convoluted setup involving additional hardware and network configuration that any consumer can surely set up if they don't like what these products are doing.
If the plan is to get a TV (irrespective of it including "smart" features) and then use your own external dongle, then you'd have to be crazy to connect the TV to the internet. I think that must have been an implied instruction in the comment you replied to.
I got a very nice "smart" TV, plugged in my own inputs, and entirely ignored that the TV had its own apps. It works just as well as a "dumb" panel would have.
Android TV now also comes with forced ads (since rebranding to Google TV).
I was pretty upset when the very expensive Android TV gadget I bought (Nvidia Shield TV) specifically to have an external device without ads suddenly had them. They take up the upper third of the home screen.
What they did to the shield was a tragedy. It was so refreshing to have a device that I could completely customized to remove ads and suggested content. I don't blame Nvidia I think this is more on the Google TV side. I still think the shield is the best TV box on the market. I keep meaning to look into loading a different launcher that will let me go back to the old style.
I have no proof, but I have a feeling nVidia is working to fix this problem. They were probably blind-sided and so it's taking a while, but I fully expect them to create their own launcher now to combat this. Their customers were quite upset about it.
The problem is that you cannot turn off much of the smart tv junk, including things like ads. Paired with features such as the tv refusing to work if you don't periodically give it a valid internet connection (for it to send its cached metrics and download new ads, of course), which is slowly but surely becoming more common, and you're only marginally better off than just using the smart tv features.
I've seen a few of them. They usually start with nudging for the first few weeks ("hey, you should really plug me in and get an OS update!") before eventually refusing to work at all.
Luckily, Google has options to turn that stuff off. They could be lying about it, but it's better than generic TV brand which gives you no options, is a security nightmare, and is definitely selling every piece of data they gather to anyone who asks.
If you care about privacy absolutely do not get an Android TV dongle. Get an Apple TV (though yes, they cost more. Maybe find a used one on eBay if you're particularly price sensitive)
If you really care about privacy, don't get either. Apple is just as bad (or worse), they just have a really great PR team plugging away while they're building their ad mega-empire in the back.
That was a long article to read only to discover ZERO indication that Apple is planning on adding ads to the Apple TV (other than the author’s pure speculation).
Thanks for linking the article so I could see that for myself.
You literally have full control over what happens on an Android device most the time and Apple devices are always in a locked down walled garden where you have absolutely no idea what is going on with your data.
