Xfinity runs an open WiFi for its customers. If you instead their gateway and don’t change anything (which is 99% of users) any Xfinity customer can get online. Several of my neighbors have them, and you can’t walk around in my commercial district without seeing the “Xfinity WiFi” SSID. It would be smart for TV mfrs to do a deal with Xfinity and their equivalents world wide in order to sell viewer data to advertisers and receive “fresh” ads, even if the TVs are excluded from the residential network.

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crazybLanKeT an hour ago | parent | next [-]

This is actually so very doable in US, cutting deal with those like XFinity.

But if the TV manufacturer is smart in their spying game, they could also be probing for any public SSIDs to connect to when no local internet access is setup.

	▲	solyin an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Why make it so complicated? Just include an IoT cell modem with an esim.

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giancarlostoro 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

So your TV just connects to random wifi networks? That sounds a bit insane.

	▲	zargon an hour ago \| parent \| next [-]
		That example isn't a random wifi network, it's the Xfinity network. But also, you think tv manufacturers are sane? They have proven that they don't deserve the benefit of the doubt, in my opinion.
	▲	RajT88 an hour ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		It doesn't sound insane, actually. Keeping in mind, Windows XP did exactly that for a while until everyone realized, "hey, that's a security issue". I would swear MacOS too, but I wouldn't bet money on it.