I bought two TCL televisions and fortune cookies appeared out of nowhere.

I bought two TCL t-shirts and Chinese takeout started appearing out of nowhere

I bought a tcl from best buy, less then two months later the backlight went out, it was under manufacturer warranty for 1 year, tried to get them to fix it and they told me best buy had to do it, best buy said it was tcl who warrantied it, I had to go back and forth for 3 weeks and have a manager from best buy call best buys corporate  and have them explain to tcl that they must honer there one year warranty before tcl agreed to send out a tech. Best buy was on the phone with them for a half an hour explaining what there warranty ment before they even bothered to try and help. Would never buy a tcl brand again, customer service is a joke and they try what ever they can to get out of a warranty.

Well duh. China officially sees free information as an issue and must be controlled by the party, see Document Number Nine (at Wikipedia):

"Promoting the West's idea of journalism, challenging China's principle that the media and publishing system should be subject to Party discipline."

The USA is going to use your information for whatever from marketing to intelligence, but China? It is far less tolerant of a variety of ideas and behaviors. All your information leaked to the CPC is used for things like "managing" minorities, Hong Kong and other dissenters. China is downright hypocritical about leaking information too, like Zhang Zhan, the woman who leaked information about the seriousness of Wuhan's outbreak of COVID-19 is sentenced to 4 years in prison, even though that information was highly valuable to all other people on this planet. Where the USA is heading is scary, but China is way scarier already. Frankly, I don't care for either. I think we've seen enough of both countries during the pandemic and I wouldn't live in the USA and wouldn't do business with the Chinese, period.

Quote from: Todd on December 29, 2020, 15:06:56
I also don't remember being sentenced for provoking quarrels because of my Google devices.

Quote from: Todd on December 29, 2020, 15:05:43
Google uses your data for marketing. China uses your data for, um, marketing? I guess it depends on what the CCP wants to do with you.

Quote from: Cristian on December 29, 2020, 08:14:38
It's funny, my google phone listens to my conversations even I don't want. My google phone takes pictures skipping every kind of block I could install on it.
If I talk about something it proposes to me news about that. It takes traces of my whole life even I deactivated it.
But I must have fear of Chinese backdoors.
Propaganda, it's only us propaganda.

I also don't remember being sentenced for provoking quarrels because of my Google devices.

Quote from: Todd on December 29, 2020, 15:05:43
Google uses your data for marketing. China uses your data for, um, marketing? I guess it depends on what the CCP wants to do with you.

Quote from: Cristian on December 29, 2020, 08:14:38
It's funny, my google phone listens to my conversations even I don't want. My google phone takes pictures skipping every kind of block I could install on it.
If I talk about something it proposes to me news about that. It takes traces of my whole life even I deactivated it.
But I must have fear of Chinese backdoors.
Propaganda, it's only us propaganda.

Google uses your data for marketing. China uses your data for, um, marketing? I guess it depends on what the CCP wants to do with you.

Quote from: Cristian on December 29, 2020, 08:14:38
It's funny, my google phone listens to my conversations even I don't want. My google phone takes pictures skipping every kind of block I could install on it.
If I talk about something it proposes to me news about that. It takes traces of my whole life even I deactivated it.
But I must have fear of Chinese backdoors.
Propaganda, it's only us propaganda.

So if I turn off WiFi and just use it as a big cheap 4k PC monitor there's really no way the TV can talk to some Chinese server right?

It's funny, my google phone listens to my conversations even I don't want. My google phone takes pictures skipping every kind of block I could install on it.
If I talk about something it proposes to me news about that. It takes traces of my whole life even I deactivated it.
But I must have fear of Chinese backdoors.
Propaganda, it's only us propaganda.

Lol, there are hardly any major American TV brands. They all are mostly Japanese and S.Korean.

I guess it depends on where you live. If you're an American, then China could do with you (in regards to privacy) as it wills. No real recourse. On the other hand, if you're an American citizen, you could at least sue the government or elect better politicians or advocate for new laws. This is not really possible against China.

All rubbish. They just want people to stop buying their products instead buy American perhaps. All garbage.

Quote from: Dr D on December 28, 2020, 21:13:52
Fine I'll run Nmap on my router, what should I look for?  You must know if you're making these claims

Just Google TCL backdoor and you will see articles about a month ago from PCMAG and Tomshardware. There is some info there.

Fine I'll run Nmap on my router, what should I look for?  You must know if you're making these claims

#2 and what about people imprisoned in Guantanamo and other facilities for years without  charges or even rights as human beings?

Anyway that is why I opt for Samsung whenever I can - its 'sweet spot' outside both China and USA spying networks.

Who cares, if you are smart, you won't connect it to the internet (except by wire for periodic firmware updates) and instead connect a Chromecast, or Roku to add SMART features. This goes for all SMART TVs in my opinion. Get a great deal on a decent TV and don't compromise your privacy.