College Dropout | Founder of https://xitter.cf/t.co/smBMYPheOg | Host of Knowledge Without College Podcast
Miami, FL
Joined November 2013
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Solar is inevitable
Listen to @ScottAdamsSays explain why @elonmusk “was right about the future of solar”
Tech Companies have been harvesting our data by violating our privacy in 1000 different ways. Until now, they knew they could get away with it
It looks like AI is going to spur a privacy revolution and with that there is bound to be some kickback
If you've ever wondered why smart TVs are so cheap, this is why.
@log4j rooted his Samsung and found an always-on hot mic, automatic content recognition, geolocation, network mapping, ad targeting and user profiling, shared with Samsung's "400 partners".
A lot of it can be blocked in <15 min, wrote a basic guide below.
What your TV is doing
The main culprit is ACR (automatic content recognition). Your TV screenshots what's on screen, fingerprints it, and sends it home to build your ad profile. Samsung does it every 500ms, LG every 10ms [1].
What is insane: it happens on connected devices too.
Plug in your laptop, your console, your work machine, and your TV can fingerprint that via HDMI [1].
He also found that if your Samsung doesn't have a mic, it'll look for one from a connected soundbar or bluetooth device.
xitter.cf/log4j/status/211376224…
It's on by default, and you likely agreed to it on the setup screen you clicked through in 10 seconds.
Step 1: Turn off ACR
Samsung: Terms & Privacy → Viewing Information Services
LG: Live Plus
Vizio: Viewing Data
Roku: "Use info from TV inputs"
Sony/Google TV: Samba Interactive TV
Menus vary by model, but those are the names to look for. While you're in there, opt out of interest-based ads, reset your advertising ID, decline every optional privacy agreement, turn off voice recognition, and delete apps you never open.
Step 2: Give smart devices their own network
Put the TV, cameras, speakers and vacuum on your router's guest/IoT network. The logic is simple: these devices rarely get patched. If one gets compromised (getting drastically more frequent with AI), it shouldn't be able to see your other devices or home network.
Step 3: Block trackers for the whole house with DNS-level filtering
NextDNS (cloud-based) is easy and has a solid free plan. Pi-hole is a little bit more work if you prefer self hosting. For simplicity we'll focus on the former.
1. Sign up at nextdns.io (free tier is plenty)
2. Privacy tab: add a blocklist (OISD is a good bet) and turn on Native Tracking Protection for Samsung, LG, Roku, Amazon (see attached image)
3. Setup tab: copy your endpoint
4. Paste it into your router's DNS settings as DNS-over-HTTPS/TLS (or use the IPs + "Link IP" if your router only does plain DNS)
5. Bonus: block outbound port 53 except to your router. Some devices hardcode their own DNS to get around you
Then open the NextDNS logs and watch how often your TV phones home. It's eye-opening. If an app or update breaks, find the domain in the logs and allowlist it.
Why they do this
TV prices are down 97% since 2000 [2]. Most of that is better manufacturing and brutal competition. But once margins on the hardware hit zero, the cost moved to you.
In Q3 2024, Vizio lost $6.7M selling TVs and made $115.8M in gross profit from ads and viewing data [3]. They've said on earnings calls that they keep TV prices low to grow the audience they sell to advertisers. Walmart bought them in 2024.
This isn't a conspiracy theory either. Vizio paid $2.2M to the FTC in 2017 for tracking 11 million TVs without consent. Last December, Texas sued Samsung, LG, Sony, Hisense and TCL over ACR. Samsung and LG have since agreed to stop collecting that data without explicit consent [4].
TL;DR
1. ACR off
2. Ads + voice off
3. Smart devices on their own network
4. NextDNS filtering on the router
Sources:
[1] ACR study: arxiv.org/abs/2409.06203
[2] Cost of US consumer goods: aei.org/economics/chart-of-t…
[3] Vizio Q3 2024: sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/…
[4] Texas v. Samsung: texasattorneygeneral.gov/new…
Every few months Europe burns a little more. The pace is too slow to trigger the appropriate response and fast enough that it feels like there will be nothing left in 50 years. Frogs are boiling
Watched Digger
It’s an instant classic. All great art is slightly ahead of its time and unsettling in a way. It wouldn’t be ground breaking if it wasn’t
It’s a perfect encapsulation of our time, where authenticity is cringe and everything must be ironic. Tom Cruise nailed it.
Have you tried the Sauna Detoxification Protocol yet?
25 years ago, thousands of 9/11 survivors were exposed to the toxic dust and never got better.
Doctors told them "no hope." Then a forgotten detox protocol changed everything.
While writing my book Sweat, I discovered this story and couldn't believe it had never been told.
So we made a short documentary.
Their exposure was extreme. But with microplastics and environmental toxins everywhere in our lives, the question they answered is one we all face: can you actually get this stuff out?
SWEAT: The Untold 9/11 Story. 9 minutes. Free for everyone. 🇺🇸
I am once again reminding you that we are living in the golden age of entrepreneurship
Less than 1% of people have any idea what agentic AI is capable of. One focused founder can do the work of 50-100 people with a $200 monthly subscription
Get after it!
Grok Bot is amazing but what’s more amazing is how badly OpenAI and Anthropic have fumbled
They will be remembered like Yahoo or Netscape
Solar in California continues to boom because it functions as a hedge against bad energy policy and rising utility rates. Same applies in most blue states
Rather than recommissioning nuclear plants politicians are campaigning on free electricity (lol)
Solar aint going anywhere
Listen up: free electricity.
It’s called Power Hour - providing up to two hours of free electricity for millions of California households.
Working families could save approximately $1,000 a year on their electricity bills.
I’m looking forward to getting this done for California families when I’m in office.
Out of high school I worked at a few retail stores at the mall. The types of stores people spent 30+ year careers working at making real money
These people were buying houses and putting their kids through college on retail salaries. They probably never went to college themselves
Went back to that mall recently and every one of those stores were closed, including the lunch burrito spot
The whole place was a ghost town besides the screen repair and the no-name cosmetic stands. The only big name store that seemed to be booming was Footlocker. Smelled like weed.
The $20 burrito is just the surface of the problem.
Some of your friends will drift off, make themselves dumber and while you cherish your friendship, they are no longer the person you wanted to be friends with in the first place
I feel like the “agentic AI is going to change everything” hype came and went because the people that see what’s happening are more busy building than trying to explain to the nay sayers what time it is
