Be careful if you are using Roku, read the Privacy Policy.

docs.roku.com

Roku

Audio, electronic, visual, thermal, olfactory, or similar information.

Clarification: after a bit of research it seems the olfactory section pertains to CCPA California law, many places have olfactory in the privacy policy because it is required by the law. I can't believe we reached a point where we have to put olfactory in the privacy policy, but then again it won't be long before Smell-O-Vision becomes reality.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smell-O-Vision

They removed it, archived here: https://archive.ph/YYBuJ

Also have a California ip you get a different privacy policy.

111 comments

my roku TV felt my wrath because it dared to show me a banner ad while I was in the middle of a game.
i promptly disabled internet on it completely. now it's a dumb TV. and my life is much better.
- I want to recommend that you change your WiFi password. Even though you disabled the internet, it may still phone home.
  
  oh it's a relief that we have recently changed it. the bastard roku is completely locked out.
  
  Better yet, tear the wifi antenna off the board, can't connect to wifi without any antenna, no matter how hard you try.
- We'll have fun all TV's are smart TVs.
- Yep disabled Internet and I cast video from my phone to the TV so I can control what appears on the screen.
  
  Using screen mirroring or does it still access the home network?
Never give your TV the wifi password.
- The problem is that some TVs (cough Samsung) won't allow you to even use the thing as a monitor until you allow it online.
  
  That would have been an instant return for me.
  
  I've heard tell of this, I've been wondering something. Can you change your wifi password, give it the new one for setup, and then disconnect and restore your typical password and continue to use the TV, or does it need an active connection?
  
  My workplace uses Samsung TVs. I found a trick to let it run without connecting to WiFi. On the screen where it asks you to connect to a network, just click right like you wanted to skip it and it will skip it even though it doesn't say that's an option. YMMV though, I can't say if it works for all TVs.
  Better yet, don't buy a Samsung TV but this might come in handy if you happen to have one.
  
  Damn so this already started?
  Is LG also doing this?
  I think current advise is Sony but they are a lot more expensive for the same panel.
  
  I've talked to numerous people who have modern Samsung QD OLED and Mini LED TVs and literally not a single one has ever mentioned an issue like this. I'm incredibly skeptical of your claim.
  
  This is false. I just bought a brand-new current-model Samsung QN90D QLED TV. Like any modern device it nags you to connect to WiFi/Ethernet during the setup, but the "decline" button is not hidden and it's completely optional. Not sure if that's on-par with older models, but I just have it connected to my external Roku and several consoles via HDMI. Completely offline. No ads on the home screen (not that I really use it, I just switch inputs). All features are available: 4K, AI upscaling, HDR+, 144hz gaming mode, etc...
- Eh I want to control it with my automation. But it can't connect to the wan. Have firewall rules blocking it.
  
  It is always better to do that shit with a separate gizmo. Ideally, something computery enough that it will not betray you, or cheap enough that you can take a hammer to it when it does.
“we may collect information about your activities, like the apps you install or access (including usage statistics such as what apps you access, the time you access them, and how long you interact with them), and information about the videos and other content you select and stream within these streaming services.
When you use a smart TV with our operating system (e.g., a Roku TV model) with the Smart TV Experience enabled, we use Automatic Content Recognition (“ACR”) technology to collect information about what you watch or access (e.g., the programs, video games, ads and channels you viewed or accessed, and the date, time and duration of the viewing or access) via your TV’s antenna, cable box, game console, media player or other devices connected to your TV, and we may also collect additional information about the videos and other content you stream. The data collected while the Smart TV Experience is enabled may vary depending on your TV’s model and when you enabled the Smart TV Experience. For information specific to your TV, please see the Privacy > Smart TV Experience section of your TV’s settings menu. If you disable this setting on your TV, Roku will not use ACR on that TV, but Roku still receives information about your interactions and streaming activities on that TV through other methods.
If you use the Roku Media Player to view your video or photo files or listen to your music files, Roku will collect data about the files viewed within the Roku Media Player, such as codecs, and other metadata of the local files you play through the Roku Media Player”
- Alright. I hope they enjoy smelling my dog's farts all day.
  Maybe that's why they removed it... 🤔
  
  Super weird. I would assume that olfactory sensors would cost more per TV than Roku would make by collecting the data. Afaik there’s no such thing as electronic olfactory sensors per se anyway. In before labs start buying Roku TVs because they all have gas chromatography machines inside them.
- Literally every smartTV OS does this. Roku isn't special. They all collect image metadata, at least by default.
They pushed these changes on Christmas Day.
- Knowing no one would read it, since they're with family just trying to watch a lovely Christmas movie. Bastards.
  Edit: autocorrect
  
  The new section pertains to the California Law about biometric data collection, it seems they removed it because it was applied worldwide and they didn't want that. I used a California VPN server and the privacy policy changed for me.
If you buy something nowadays and it connects to the Internet, it's bad. Treat it like it's bad. VLAN it, firewall it, force it to use your DNS only and block everything until it breaks then figure out what it actually needs.
- then figure out what it actually needs.
  It needs tracking to work.
  Also, I hardly see my non tech relatives following your advice 🤣
- Don't give it internet, return it if it “needs” internet.
  What you're doing is a losing battle; once internet connected everything is normalised they'll stop working if you block tracking and suddenly you're the weird one.
  Instead, vote with your wallet, talk with others about how annoying/bad this is and get them to vote with their wallets, too!
The moose is tightening.
Every single SmartTV OS does this fyi.
- Common tactic is to refuse it wifi connection but looks like they caught on to this too.
  
  How so? What do you mean?
  
  "They caught on".
  I mean - u don't use any apps? Netflix, plex, Hulu, Disney, apple tv?
I don't connect my Roku TV to the internet, and always use external devi e via HDMI.
- Ok. Which device u connect?
  
  Another device that collects the same shit probably 😂😥
  
  Laptop, or a mini PC
  
  My Roku media player, obviously...
Any recommended firewall block lists (or allow lists) for Roku?
- put it on a damn VLAN with no access to the internet. maybe through a whitelisting proxy. otherwise you won't know if it just evades your measures by using some encrypted tunnel or anything
Roku is, first and foremost, an advertising platform.
- My friend uses roku and I found it hilariously dystopian that the screen saver is basically just an artistic side scrolling city scape with billboards that advertise shit shows and movies you can stream or pay for.
  Plex/Jellyfin is the only way to go.
Probably a catch-all for their next generation of Roku devices they're developing.
- It is definitely a catch all, disclosure of this information is required by California law, that is the only reason they even put it in the policy. They seem to have accidentally released it worldwide, which is why they reverted it, now it only shows if you have a California ip.
Why would I use Roku anyways? It's such an inferior television operating system.
- I've had good luck with it for years in comparison to Samsungs junk. I only briefly tried LGs when I bought my C3 but fell back to the Roku because it's simpler to use (as a CEC device to turn on the audio receiver and change inputs automatically) and syncs between other Rokus. It also has the least amount of issues with Plex and all my Linux ISOs since they're in varying formats that don't always play nice with other clients (like the god damned POS Xbox client).
  I understand there's a lot of tracking and phoning home but it's the least worst option in my experience.
  
  If you have files with a bunch of different formats and codecs you don’t want to use anything Roku, your direct play options are extremely limited. This becomes almost a hard requirement when dealing with hevc 4K hdr/dv stuff unless you’ve got a server with quicksync or some oomph.
  I’m probably going to get a lot of derision for this because it’s Lemmy, but for wide direct play coverage you either want an Nvidia Shield or an Apple TV 4K. I like the Apple TV solution, and everyone in my household is familiar with the UI. The Shield is the only one of the two to support Atmos audio if you have ceiling or upward firing speakers. It’s also not apple if you’re ideologically opposed to owning Apple products.
  I’m not surprised you fell back to a Roku box from the built in TV apps, but if you’re going to go for a dedicated streaming box Roku, Firesticks/Firecubes, and Chromecasts should be the last resort due to ads in the experience and codec support.
- Look at this guy with choices.
  I mean - these days u go to store and buy a tv. Many people don't even know what os is on it.
  
  LOL fair. If I have a choice (we'll see when I move out) I take Google TV over Roku everytime. Roku's software is horrible, Apple got sued over doing far less than what Roku does with their operating system.
Smell-O-Vision sounds like a great idea until you think about it while watching a zombie movie.
We have a roku TV that has no internet connection. It did when we first got it and didn't play as much attention to this kind if thing. It's now a dumb TV that'll never get internet again. We run everything through an rpi4 running osmc.
When Roku took all four of my set-top roku devices hostage a while back with their forced Terms of Service update, I threw them all in the trash and have warned people against using them since.
Roku is a garbage ad company that will continue to use your devices against you.
I ain't reading all that
- And you're someone who cares enough about privacy to subscribe to this community.
  Which is why the only actual viable solution is legislation and privacy protection laws.
  
  but also because reading the policy doesn't help much when there are no options (brands) that are acceptable
  
  OP could have included a summary, description, or quote of what they're referring to and criticizing. They did not.
  If you don't own a Roku device, there's no reason to read all that. I certainly don't want to read the full privacy policy either and then guess what OP opened a discussion about or other commenters talk about.
  Also, this community is called piracy, not privacy.

111 comments