https://www.wired.com/story/android-tv-streaming-boxes-china-backdoor/
New research has found that some streaming devices and dozens of Android and iOS apps are secretly being used for fraud and other cybercrime.
Wanna know a neat trick?
Don't give your TV your wifi password, or an ethernet cable. Turn any cheap "smart tv" into a "cheap tv". Use your other devices that you already ignored privacy warnings of trust and nobody loses anything.
Okay chief. What do I use to play YouTube videos, local tv news, Netflix or pirated movies on my tv then ? I have to have a laptop or a computer on the side to play the content? That computer has to be able to playback 4k HDR. It also has to use edge to get 1080p out of Netflix (scratch that I have a 4k subscription). It has to consume less or the same then my TV.
I'm curious about what real alternative you got, that is as useful and user friendly as using the android tv directly ?
A roku, Chromecast, etc, which will get updates for longer than the TV itself, and which is much less likely to be backdoored.
Or begging companies to support Miracast properly
Don't buy cheap streaming boxes. Buy one from a reputable retailer made by a trusted manufacturer.
I'd say this is the answer, I got a Nokia 8000 a few weeks ago and so far it hasn't appeared on any of these device watchlists.
Buy a chrome cast, fire stick, or roku and stick it in your android TV that isn't connected to the wifi.
The chrome cast, fire stick, and roku have their own privacy issues associated, but if they were running malware (outside of what we know of those services collecting and selling user data to advertisers) they would have bigger problems.
Reddit thread from 9 months ago talking about this: https://www.turewell.com/products/android-tv-box-10-t95-quad-core-64-bits-4gb-ram-32gb-rom-6k-3d-2-4-5-0ghz-dual-wifi-bt5-0-ethernet-dlna-hdmi-h-265-smart-tv-box
Good article about it: https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/2023/01/preinstalled-malware-infested-t95-tv-box-from-amazon
Is Wired out here taking stories from YouTubers? I swear Linus Tech Tips covered this entire thing months ago, saying basically to stick to Fire, Onn or Chromecast devices.
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