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[sevenlayermuddle]

I wanted a new TV.  All TVs are 'smart' these days.   I avoided Sony because they are in bed with Google, I gather you must agree to Google T&C and privacy before a current Sony TV will even let you watch BBC1.

I settled for Panasonic (Firefox OS).  Panasonic at least let you watch TV without selling out on privacy.    Still to use any of the Apps, whilst they don't insist you open an account, you must agree to Panasonic's home cloud privacy policy.  And beware an innocent-looking tick box, otherwise all of your Freeview viewing history gets sent to Panasonic.   

My real worry is.. What the heck should I do, in 5 or 10 years, when it's time to dispose of it?  It's too darned big to break it up.     It will have my login details and password for Netflix, in its flash.   If I were to use the browser, it would have my browsing history in flash too including cached emails, whatever.  And all available I would think, to anybody armed with the right hardware tools. 

[Dray]

https://www.netflix.com/password
etc.

[sevenlayermuddle]

https://www.netflix.com/password
etc.

Er, what?  Second time I have said that tonight. 

Anybody else?

[Dray]

If you think your password is stored on a device you are disposing of, change your password so the device no longer has the correct password.

[sevenlayermuddle]

Changing passwords is good advice, but I see it as s second line of defence. I'd still be very  uncomfortable about whether I'd forgotten or overlooked anything.

Netflix was just one example, it will also have passwords for other services to which you might subscribe, it will have your WiFi credentials if you use WiFi, it will have the names of your home servers and samba share credentials if you use that feature.   It is, potentially, a very long list of concerns.

ISTR that the flash memory manufacturers do often provide a hardware 'secure erase' interface,  but it is unusual to see it offered in consumer equipment menus.   My Panasonic TV does have a 'shipping condition' reset, but I have not seen any assurances that it will securely erase stored data. 

[Bowdon]

I wonder if these smart tv sets have a battery, like motherboards do. If that could be removed maybe it might lose all its settings?

[roseway]

I doubt it, they'll have non-volatile flash memory.

[sevenlayermuddle]

It's basically the same problem as when disposing of an old smartphone, or even an old computer.

For computer devices these days, I usually content myself with simply over-writing HDDs with zeros.  Physical  destruction of the platters is an option too for anybody more paranoid, or if the disk has bad sectors that may escape a simple data overwrite.

For smartphones I usually end up invoking the manufacturer's 'full reset'.  And then I decide I still don't really trust it, so the phone gets stuffed in a drawer while I ponder what to do.   And there they remain. 

But for a TV that was still working, quite apart from the fact it might have residual value,  or a friend/relative happy to take it as a gift, I'm not sure I'd have the heart to resort to physical destruction.  And it's too big to stuff into a drawer with all these old phones and iPods.   

[Ronski]

So far with smartphones I've only sold on the wife's and kids phones, none of whom are power users. First I'll go through the apps and clear data, then uninstall the apps, then physically look through any remaining folders deleting any data that looks personal, then reset the phone,  then I'll copy across a film completely filling the device memory and storage card,  then delete it. Not sure how I'll deal with mine when I come to sell it, probably follow the above then completely update the OS, chances of anything remaining will be very slim.

Have you considered you're smart TV is listening to you and sending that back to the manufacturer for analysis for voice recognition purposes ?

[sevenlayermuddle]

My TV has no microphone (or camera)

That said, I'm not too resentful of voice recognition systems that require snippets being uploaded to servers.   That whole technology is just a wondrous black magic to me, I have no idea how it all works, but I am happy to take it on good faith that there are good technical reasons for doing so.

The one that bugged me was uploading my terrestrial history from the TV tuner, BBC 1/ BBC 2, whatever.   I can accept they'll track internet viewing,  and anyway it's already tracked  by  the providers - Youtube,  Netflix, ISPs, and umpteen other places.   But I find it hard to believe there is any good technical reason for tracking tuned channels, other than plain nasty data mining.   

For the record, the option to disable it is not all that obvious...

Menu->Network->My home cloud->Notices->'Opt out of TV viewing data collection'

The same page has another opt-out, for cookie-based advertising.   That one doesn't really bug me though, just par for the course.

Per mobile phones or any flash device, overwriting the data is not as effective as people may think.  Owing to the way flash memory is implemented, the newly written data may be written to a completely different physical cell, leaving the old data intact elsewhere .  Combined with the fact that when you 'fill the space' you are actually just filling a partition, leaving other partitions with free space, I find it all a bit of a worry.  Hence my drawer full of old phones.

<edit, said YouView, meant YouTube.> 

[Ronski]

They could simply be using you're viewing data for simple viewing figures, lets hope that's all it is.

The good technical reason for uploading it is, first off all the CPU in the TV/Phone/Device is not powerful enough, and secondly by analysing the voice data they can improve on recognition.

I've purchased devices that have still had the previous users account details in, pictures and all sorts, some people make no attempt, or simply don't know how to or are not aware of the possible implications.

I do what my knowledge allows, and then simply hope for the best 

[sevenlayermuddle]

I've purchased devices that have still had the previous users account details in, pictures and all sorts, some people make no attempt, or simply don't know how to or are not aware of the possible implications.

I have experienced similar.  A router from eBay was still configured with previous owner's  broadband login and WiFi credentials.   An iPhone from eBay came complete with previous owner's SIM card, I asked if that was a mistake, no it wasn't - he'd got a new SIM now. 

Maybe we should console ourselves that with so many easy pickings, the low-life probably needn't bother resorting to geeky advanced data recovery?  A simple 'delete' may be all it takes to persuade them to cast the device aside and move onto another...

Note to self... Worry less.