You will never be forgiven!

I probably have some bad karma

I don't think those two facts are related? Your isp doesn't need to connect to its servers from within your local network to track your internet usage. Something else in your network must be trying to connect to that domain

Pal, it’s way beyond bad karma at this point!!!

Thanks, looks like it's on the Stevenblack list.

It's on https://raw.githubusercontent.com/StevenBlack/hosts/master/hosts

I also have additional lists from firebog.net, and I use jacklul/pihole-updatelists to maintain it.

Solar systems have mobile modems in them to phone home

Cars have mobile modems in them to phone home

Maybe some TVs do too

No carrier has cell service at my house but maybe they will add a sat phone.

Stupid TVs FTW. If you can’t buy them stupid, give them a WiFi lobotomy.

Nothing a jumper wire can’t fix

I think they are inviting you over to their place to watch some (dumb) TV?

I’ve never allowed my TV to have an active route to the internet since I bought it in 2019, it’s exclusively fed over HDMI by gaming consoles and an Apple TV.

The thing is, HDMI 1.4 added HEC, so what’s to prevent media players from serving as an Ethernet switch and providing an internet connection to TVs.

TVs are way too inexpensive for manufacturers to pay for modems, service fees, and bandwidth fees to collect this kind of data. They'd spend more paying for that cell connection over the lifetime of the TV than you paid for the product in the first place. Solar systems and cars that cost many tens of thousands of dollars are a completely different ballpark compared to a $500-1000 TV.

My TV is not a smart TV, it's not spying on me.

Finally, some good TV

Yeah it contributes to the discussion with the simple solution on how not to be spied on by your TV, in an admittedly patronising way.

Well, maybe a Hisense or a cheap soundbar might have a listening device, but they'll be hard pressed to phone home.

You probably can use your tv without it using you, or probably not.

I, too, use pihole. But it does not prevent your data from leaking 100% and never will.
And it’s easily circumvented by using other DNS servers or even by connecting to hardcoded IPs. I dont know specifically about TVs, but some manufacturers do that.

The only way to make sure that TV can never spy is to never connect it to the internet.

Does anyone know if there's a domain blocklist for smart TV telemetry? If so, I could easily put it into my DNS server, like I already do for ads.

I'd like to continue using my streaming apps without resorting to yet another device. I have an HTPC that runs KODI but I think it'd be a pain to replace all of my streaming apps.

Oh yeah, for sure.

cute puppies at DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo. Privacy, Simplified.

(duckduckgo.com)