My "smart" TV has been nagging me to update it's firmware. Update or Maybe Later, no option to refuse. I eventually got bored of clicking later every time I turned it on so installed it.

Motherfucker. Every time I pause my TV now it puts an advert page up now. I can click to remove it but why should I have to? Samsung just installed a digital billboard in my home by stealth.

I hope the advertising revenue was worth it because I will never buy a Samsung product again you stupid fucks.

@TwoClownsEating That's appalling. Poisoning their brand I'd assume; everyone will be looking for another TV make next time.

@TwoClownsEating

Wait till you find out what that firmware is sending back home to Samsung's ACR servers.
(Hint: It's screenshots.)

@TwoClownsEating Protip: What you want isn't a television, it's something called a commercial display. They won't have this sort of user hostile shit baked into them because otherwise they'd sell zero of them, because they'd be useless for their intended purpose.

Get yourself a dumb screen and leave the smarts outside it.

@TwoClownsEating the samsung engineer slashing a customers tv screen was my warning about them

@TwoClownsEating @purplepadma
Samsung TVs notoriously suck donkey

@TwoClownsEating Maybe take a look at PiHole on a raspberry pi? I’m running it on a £15 pi zero and I’ve got it to block the adverts on ITVX, ch4 and my5. Maybe you could add the Samsung domains to its blocklist?

@TwoClownsEating that is beyobd fucked!

that never again part is true for me now too. no ads means no samsung.

@TwoClownsEating Hmm NEC has a series of displays that can use the Raspberry Pi computer module. Opensource media? https://www.sharpnecdisplays.eu/p/eeme/en/searchresults.xhtml?query=Raspberry+Pi+Compute

@TwoClownsEating did see this coming years ago. Never connected my TV to the internet and only use it as a display for my Apple TV.

@TwoClownsEating
Regularly my Samsung S22 Android phone demands I update some 'agreement' without any details. Cycling the phone power removes it.

My hearing aid control app tries the same nonsense.

Has Legal never explained 'informed consent?'

@TwoClownsEating Fucking hell. We have a Samsung smart TV. So this is in our future. 😒

@timrichards

I don't know, maybe consumers now are desensitised to this nonsense. Seems a weird thing to do.

@helplessduck

I pity anyone who has to review what I'm pausing on 🤣

Seriously though, eww.

@Theosoreass

Seems a weird thing to do but maybe I'm less passive than other consumers. Complete turn off.

@Infoseepage

While I agree, what I want IS a television. What I appear to have is a screen riddled with nonsense.

When this packs up a dumb display is being purchased.

@ginger_tosser

Interesting, cheers for the tip.

@falcennial

I bought a Technics 1210 turntable 30 years ago, it's given me thousands of hours of pleasure, still works perfectly and has never tried to sell me a new sofa.

@TwoClownsEating Horribly intrusive, I would've thought

@TwoClownsEating I believe lawmakers need to step in here. People should have right to go to older firmware if they choose. Samsung broke hardware they don't own, and that's not okay.

@pavel

Exactly. The product I bought is fundamentally not the same as when I left the shop.

Won't hold my breath about lawmakers stepping in, I'm sure they've got some very cheap, very fancy TVs 👀

@TwoClownsEating Would be fun to get lawyer from EFF and suing Samsung for damaging your TV. Because they did not really give you way to opt out, and did not tell you what you are opting into...

@pavel

The no opt out is really sneaky. I hate that trend online, "maybe later".

I'm sure the T&C's had something buried in there in language you'd need to be a lawyer to understand.

@TwoClownsEating Yeah. And when you do confusing/sneaky/.. thing to force someone into agreement, that's a fraud. Unfortunately, this one is common and not commonly prosecuted :-(.

@TwoClownsEating Every time this shit happens I am very happy I never gave my TV the WiFi password.