Why is my unused Vizio TV sending gigabytes of traffic every day?

https://imgur.com/a/mlW8bkZ

by kirkouimet • 6 years ago

44 23 6 years ago

imgur.com

aleister_777• 6 years ago

Interesting question and I agree.

Also, what are you "unusing" it for exactly that requires it to have power?

kirkouimet• 6 years ago

Just have it powered on for my Apple TV, I never use any of the features of the TV, but I did connect it to the WiFi when I first set it up.

chadlavi• 6 years ago

so you do use it to watch your AppleTV?

mbushey• 6 years ago

I don't understand what would possess anyone to hand over their wifi creds to a TV. Sounds like you should change your wifi pass.

mdorazio• 6 years ago

Well it's not just you [1]. I don't have any data to support it, but I'm personally guessing either it's a ridiculously massive update, some overzealous ACR, or they may have setup some kind of p2p streaming system for who knows what reason. If you don't want to turn off wi-fi to the TV entirely, maybe try disabling ACR [2] to see if that does anything.

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/VizioTV/comments/96gtti/vizio_tv_us...

[2] https://www.consumerreports.org/privacy/how-to-turn-off-smar...

gentleman112• 6 years ago

I would be upset if my tv sent a single byte of information out. I use an old lcd and if it ever dies, I just don’t even know what we’ll do. Can you even buy TVs anymore that don’t spy on you?

curtis3389• 6 years ago

Yes. Sceptre is a good brand for dumb TVs.

gentleman112• 6 years ago

Noted

ashtonkem2• 6 years ago

You could just not configure the network on a smart TV if you can’t find a dumb one.

GoToRO• 6 years ago

2 years ago with a Samsung tv: no network, no terms and conditions signed, no terms signed, the tv would always forget to use the same input it was using before restart (degraded functionality). I never tried to remove the network after I signed the terms, maybe it woul have still worked.

salawat• 6 years ago

Actually, I recall articles which mention certain brands would look for nearby unsecured networks. All of that goes out the window if vendors start provisioning SIMs and use the cellular network.

I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't have some code for looking for undersecured networks capable of being exploited to derive credentials, though at least then you'd have grounds to sue under CFAA.

nosmokewhereiam• 6 years ago

Any .pcap data? Maybe we could see the domains being called?

aaron695• 6 years ago

What about a boring, you are looking at the data usage for the wrong device? What's the logging graphic from?

The uploads to downloads look like P2P.

Not sure why it'd be asymmetrical though if you aren't managing it and what would it be storing on at that GB? Is there a hard disk in the TV?

gorkish• 6 years ago

You are using a Ubiquiti device that gathers ip accounting information from a slew of various devices on the network then tries to cram it all together into an overall view. It seems widely accepted that their statistics aren't that reliable. My system reported day that my sleeping macbook sent out 7TB of data. /Narrator: It did not./

Are you totally positive and 100% sure that this is even Internet traffic? Unifi will report all LAN traffic too. Some of those first gen smart TVs will spew untold amounts of multicast and broadcast in an effort to discover DLNA servers and other media devices.

Anything other than speculative theories?

Why is my unused Vizio TV sending gigabytes of traffic every day?

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