Nearly half of LG smart TV apps contain residential proxy SDKs

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Overall reaction to LG smart TV proxy apps

  • Many express strong distrust or “revulsion” toward smart TVs; this story confirms existing fears.
  • Clarification that the problematic SDKs are in third‑party LG WebOS apps, not core LG apps, but LG’s store is described as spammy and poorly curated.
  • Some thought it was even worse (no consent at all); others note the consent dialog is more explicit than expected, though still seen as misleading/insufficient.

Consent, legality, and ethics

  • Several argue this practice should be outright illegal, citing:
    • Users don’t really understand what they’re consenting to.
    • Risk of investigators attributing abusive or illegal traffic to innocent households.
    • Violation of ISPs’ terms of service.
  • Counterpoint: some see it as analogous to Tor/VPNs and ask what principled reason exists to ban it, beyond bad wording and abuse.
  • Others reject that equivalence, noting VPN IP ranges are identifiable, whereas residential proxies deliberately “blend in.”

Impact on websites, scrapers, and AI

  • Operators complain about heavy scraping via residential proxies:
    • Makes rate‑limiting and prioritizing humans over bots very hard.
    • Compared to a “buying out the grocery store” analogy: infrastructure for real users is starved by disguised scrapers.
  • Suggestion that this is heavily used to circumvent scraper blocks, power AI training and price‑scraping, and even DDoS/botnet activity.
  • A minority view sees mass residential proxying as potentially positive for anonymity and defeating centralized gatekeepers, but others point to real abuse and legal risk to end users.

Smart TV avoidance and alternatives

  • Many recommend never connecting smart TVs to the internet, or isolating them on a firewall/VLAN/guest network.
  • Common pattern: use the TV purely as a display, attach Apple TV, streaming box, or small PC (Kodi, LibreELEC, Plasma Bigscreen, Home Assistant setups).
  • Some prefer commercial/digital‑signage displays or older “dumb” TVs, accepting a price premium.

Monetization and enshittification

  • Broad consensus that TVs are subsidized by adtech and data collection; “smart” features are primarily for tracking and ads.
  • Some argue users implicitly chose cheaper ad‑subsidized sets over more expensive “dumb” ones, but others note the non‑smart option has effectively disappeared.

Critique of the article and AI content

  • Several complain the linked blog post reads like LLM‑written “slop”: repetitive style, generic headings, and bloat.
  • Mention of scroll‑hijacking and other UX annoyances on the page, further souring perception.