Privacy and telemetry

• Your TV's microphone and the voice remote

  There is a microphone in the remote and sometimes in the set as well. Worth knowing which is which.

• Why cheap TVs carry so much advertising

  Not carelessness or poor quality. It is the business model, and understanding it explains everything else.

• What to do with a TV that no longer gets updates

  Seven years without a patch and connected to your Wi-Fi. Not alarmism, just arithmetic.

• What data your smart TV actually collects

  Not paranoia: it is written in the manufacturers' own policies. Whether anyone reads them is another matter.

• What ACR is and why it is in your TV

  The feature that knows what you are watching even when it comes from a laptop on a cable.

• Removing ads from the home screen

  Paying for a television and finding adverts on your own home screen. It can be fixed.

• How much power your TV uses in standby

  Off does not mean off. A smart TV in standby is still working, and that gets paid for.

• Do you need a Google account on the TV?

  You can run an Android TV without signing in. Whether it is worth it is another question.

• Blocking your TV's ads at the router

  Works on any television, Android or not, and requires touching the set at all.

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