Friday Morning Links

Sounds like dead-on-arrival to me. OTA is just that, over the air. No thank you to targeted ads and subscriptions.

Then don't connect your tv to the internet simple as that. You will still be able to receive 3.0 without it.

It's all part of the coming onslaught by big data. All sorts of 'connected - all the time' products/systems coming out over this year.
Comcast Xfi system as an example »Comcast Turns Its Gigabit Router Into a Smart Home Hub [17] comments

With using an all-in-one modem/router from your ISP, your LAN is not secure from prying eyes, as more 'log into your ISP account' to adjust your ISP provided modem/router, beyond new automatic features that will tweak your WIFI for best wireless.
ISP modem/router is tending to come with an ISP hotspot for your guests and or neighbors, which that signal is separate from your LAN and IP address. That wifi can be used for tracking, should you keep your wireless products wifi on all the time, as you travel.

For the cable/antenna TV systems: It used to be you'd need Nielson families to "see" what people were watching. That changed when the cable TV box was able to start talking back to the head-end with basic statistics of what the viewer is watching. Cable boxes then became more smart and would talk more to the head-end about what the viewer was watching and how long...
The current systems, especially with IPTV, collect tons of data. Since the TV box has to talk to the head-end to request the next channel, it knows what you watch, For how long, And I guess knows when you mute the noise of irritating commercials.

To answer to the cord-cutters, who only do over-the-air when needed, there is the encouragement to plug that Smart-TV into the Internet and ATSC 3.0 can take advantage of that connection to "monitor" what people are watching on over-the-air. Smart-TV has already been known to spy on users and to, shall we say 'scrape' the LAN for unprotected file names (not the unprotected file content, as far as we know) and other connected devices and upload that to the mother ship.

To add: With Internet sites now near 50% encrypted (HTTPS), the spying ISP or tech provider needs a way to bypass that secure channel.
»www.eff.org/deeplinks/20 ··· tire-web

No network connected televisions for me then ... I'll take a big LCD/LED with an HDMI port and that's it, thanks.

The most creepy thing i've had happen was a few weeks ago I had to call in to verizon and report a local tower issue (a fools errand to be sure) I complained because I had no upload speed on any of our 6 lines.

So they apparently have a way to see what apps are installed so went through all the steps to clear my android cache and mentioned that angrybirds was installed and on their list of high risk apps.
Not surprisingly after going through all the steps and several reboots I did not regain my upload speed on any of the lines let alone the one they had me doing checks on for over an hour.

I'm sure it simplifies their tech support greatly but it's still so creepy.

It's like if you called up comcast and said you were having problems with your modem and they said ok I need you to get a paperclip from the 4th drawer to the left in the kitchen there should be 5 in the back of the drawer under the phone books.

There are cell company backdoors on cell phones, under various names. They like to call them 'helpers' or 'click a button and fix your phone' kind of thing.

Verizon's current version is: AppFlash. So check if it is installed and or active.
April 2017 EFF article:
»www.eff.org/deeplinks/20 ··· -spyware

Don't know how much the MyVerizon app reports to home base. Touted as being for the end user to manage their phone. But has basically full permissions on the phone.
»play.google.com/store/ap ··· on&hl=en

Dec 2014: Verizon encrypted calling app (Voice Cypher) is liked by the NSA, as a backdoor to communications.
»www.zdnet.com/article/ve ··· the-nsa/

2014: Companies put apps on phones that download more apps to do things. DT Ignite
»www.forbes.com/sites/mat ··· mission/
»www.techworm.net/2014/12 ··· app.html

Most end users won't notice the crap on their phones. All they care is it can text, Facebook, and occasional voice calls. ANd a long enough battery life before recharge.

Why I use carrier agnostic and unlocked devices. They’re not molested by Verizon’s spyware

I doubt we'll see it anytime soon here, we're (Ukiah and Redwood Valley) served by a translator that broadcasts in both digital and analog, it's actually the last translator left in Mendocino and Lake Counties (rural Northwestern California), without one here, no OTA TV (due to the mountains and being so far away from the station transmitters), so most get stations via satellite, cable or internet.

»www.tiaukiah.org our translator

The connected part of optional, as you said no thanks to targeted ads.

Having said that I think ATSC 3.0 will be a big win and probably deployed pretty quickly. It is a more efficient transmission standard improving coverage and facilitating mobile connectivity and the compression standard is more efficient. ATSC 3.0 will allow broadcasters to compete with Cable offering 4K if they want or spend the increased capacity to deliver more channels.

/tom

Encryption is possible with CURRENT antenna TV. Is it used? No because their broadcast licenses would be yanked pretty fast

And the internet connected targeted ad part of 3.0 is optional—if you want a connected TV you can still get crafty blacklisting certain IP addresses on your home network, don’t act helpless

Sure. I do tech for a living, so I could do that. John Q. Public? Probably not. The point is, I should not HAVE TO. It's a little ridiculous when you need to have 2,500 firewall rules in your home firewall to guard against all the company/vendor BS trying to hoover up data on you.

So as I said above. No thanks. Simple panels with HDMI in, thanks.

Also, regarding "Anon6d7fc" - remind me how much 3DTV is being transmitted out there? Thought this would be the next big thing also?

I just think you don’t want us to technologically outpace the Europeans

Why? We seem to be lagging behind in many things anyway.

So why let the halfwits keep doing it? Pai is right to champion on 3.0 but wrong for hating net neutrality

Because we keep electing halfwits for whatever reason? I haven't kept track of Pai's involvement in 3.0 but I hardly think champion is the right word.
When they launched 1.0 they made an implementation deadline and mandated that televisions have tuners to receive it.

With 3.0 they basically said yeah you can switch over to but 3.0 good luck getting the manufacturer's not to screw over your customers and you will have to get rid of roughly half of your existing channels to do so until our simulcast mandate expires since we aren't allocating temporary space for the change this time.