WEBVTT

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What I'm about to tell you in this episode should

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absolutely scare everyone. Data collection is

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happening everywhere. Phones, cars, apps, doorbells,

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you name it. It's happening. But today, I want

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to zoom in on one device that is currently sitting

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in your living room, maybe your bedroom. The

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smart TV. Your TV wants to be on your Wi -Fi.

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And it's not because it cares about your wireless

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signal strength or wants to get you access to

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Netflix or Hulu or Disney Plus. A modern smart

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TV is basically an ad tech computer. with a very

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large screen attached and once it's online it

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can watch what you watch build a profile on you

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and send pieces of that out to a whole ecosystem

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that you did not personally invite into your

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living room. Today I'm going to make the most

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aggressively practical recommendation that I

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can do not connect your smart TV to your network

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keep the panel dumb and make the smart part a

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thing you can unplug replace and control welcome

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back to the Tyler Woodward project I'm Tyler

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a broadcast engineer by trade a Linux nerd by

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choice and I enjoyed the mystifying tech that's

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supposedly too complicated for people. Today,

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we're talking about smart TVs and surveillance,

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what's real, what's marketing and what's outright

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dark pattern behavior and what you can do about

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it without needing a PhD and packet captures.

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Here's how we're going to do this. First, I'll

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explain the main ways a TV can spy in plain language.

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Then we'll look at why the incentives are so

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strong and how opt out often feels like a scavenger

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hunt or doesn't exist at all. Finally, I'll give

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you a setup that's boring, reliable, and much

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harder to exploit. Offline TV plus a controlled

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streaming box. Let's get into it. Let's define

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spying because most people mean In this episode,

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spying means collecting data about what you watch

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when you watch it, what device is doing the watching,

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and sometimes what's happening in the room itself,

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then sending all that juicy data to the manufacturer

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or partners for ads, analytics, and tracking.

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The big one, ACR. ACR is Automatic Content Recognition.

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Think of it like Shazam, but for video. Your

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TV can take tiny fingerprints of what's on the

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screen. Sometimes, from HDMI inputs, not just

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the built -in apps, match it into content databases

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and log what you have watched. That can include

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over -the -air TV, cable boxes, Game consoles,

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blu -ray players, anything that produces a pixel

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and it's plugged into that device can be captured.

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If you're thinking, wait, the TV can recognize

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what my PlayStation is showing? Yeah, that's

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the point. It doesn't need to be the app provider.

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The TV is looking at the output as well. Viewing

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data. is valuable because it helps advertisers

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connect ads to outcomes. Did you see the ad?

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And then buy a thing later? That's the holy grail.

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Even without ACR, smart TVs and their apps send

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telemetry, usage, metrics, which app you opened,

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how long you watched, and what buttons you pressed,

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crashes, performance, and identifiers. You'll

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hear terms like advertising ID or device ID.

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That's basically a serial number for ad tech.

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It lets companies recognize this same TV over

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time. Even if the TV isn't signed in to a personal

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account. A lot of platforms want you signed in.

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Email addresses, phone numbers, maybe a linked

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payment method. Once you do that, the data becomes

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easier to attach to a real identity and correlate

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with other devices on your network. Sometimes

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the matching is direct, sometimes it's best guess.

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These devices are on the same IP address at the

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same time, so they're probably in the same household.

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You don't just get ads, you get profile building.

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And profiles tend to outlive the device they

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were created on. Sometimes, this is real, often

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times it's overstated, but some TVs and remotes

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have microphones for voice search. When that's

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enabled, audio has to go somewhere for speech

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recognition, either processed locally or sent

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to the cloud. Now, let me be clear, I'm not claiming

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every smart TV is constantly recording your conversations

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for fun. But I am saying that the presence of

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a mic plus unclear settings plus always on connectivity

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is a risk multiplier and manufacturers have not

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earned the benefit of the doubt. In theory, you

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can toggle settings, limit ad tracking, disable

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ACR, interest -based ads, you can turn those

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off, and so on. In practice, it's often buried

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and consistently named resets after updates or

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gets reprompted in ways that nudge you toward

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hitting that agree button. And in some ecosystems,

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this is where we'll talk about Roku. People have

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reported that meaningful opt out is limited or

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not clearly offered. for certain types of data

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collection. The exact knobs vary by device model

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and firmware version, which is part of the problem.

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You can't manage privacy if the controls are

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a moving target. The TV business changed. Manufacturers

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sell panels on thin margins. The money is in

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the platform. Ads, promoted content, revenue,

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shares from subscriptions and data. If you bought

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a great deal on a huge screen at Best Buy on

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Black Friday, there's a decent chance you didn't

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buy a TV. You bought an ad slot that came with

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a TV attached. But I already paid for the TV,

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you say? Yeah. And that's the uncomfortable part,

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right? That the transaction you think you made

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is money for hardware. The transaction the platform

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wants is money for hardware plus ongoing monetization

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through attention and data. That's why the out

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of the box experience tries so hard to get the

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TV online immediately. It's also why skip is

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often small or you get multiple screens that

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feel mandatory or you're just flat -out pressured

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to create an account just to access features

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you don't actually want. Vizio is the useful

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real -world reference point because it's not

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hypothetical. In 2017, Vizio agreed to a settlement

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with the FTC and the New Jersey Attorney General

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over collecting viewer data via ACR and sharing

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it in ways regulators said wasn't properly disclosed

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or consented to. The settlement included monetary

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penalties and requirements around disclosure

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and consent. It's evidence that TV is collecting

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viewer data. It's not a conspiracy theory. It's

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a business model that has at least in some cases

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crossed legal lines. Roku and the no real opt

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out frustration. Let's talk about that because

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Roku is popular because it's simple, fast and

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has good app coverage. And best of all, it's

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usually cheaper, right? But you kind of get what

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you pay for, I guess. That convenience and that

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cheapness comes with a platform business model

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where people run into the same pattern. privacy

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controls that exist but don't fully stop data

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collection, controls that are hard to interpret,

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and prompts that keep trying to re -enable personalization.

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Even if a platform gives you some toggles, your

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core problem remains. The device is still on

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your network, still talking to services you don't

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control, and still updating in ways you can't

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fully predict. If your goal is to stop the surveillance,

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the winning move is not better menu diving, the

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winning move is removing the network path altogether.

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Here's the setup I recommend if you're anti this

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crap and you mean it. During setup, skip Wi -Fi.

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If it tries to force a connection, look for setup

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later. Use basic TV or skip altogether if it

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gives you that option at all. If the TV already

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has Wi -Fi credentials saved, remove them and

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forget the network. If it has an ethernet jack,

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leave it empty. Don't plug anything into it.

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No network means no telemetry. No ACR uploads,

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no ad auctions, no just one more consent screen.

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and no surprise firmware update that changes

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your settings while you're making dinner. If

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you still want streaming, because obviously this

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is the 21st century, move that function to a

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separate box or stick. Pick one where you can

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keep app permissions tighter, disable ad personalization,

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update on your schedule, and replace the device

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without replacing the screen. streaming device

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gets weird, you swap a $30 to $150 box, not a

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$600 television. If you absolutely must put the

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TV online, maybe put it on a separate VLAN or

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guest network with limited access to other devices.

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This doesn't stop the TV from phoning home. It

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does help. reduce collateral damage if the TV

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gets compromised and it limits household graph

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building via the local network discovery. Tools

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like Piehole or NextDNS can reduce the blast

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radius by blocking known tracking and add domains,

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but don't treat DNS blocking as the magic cloak.

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Platforms can and do change domains. use cdns

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and they bundle services together the cleanest

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privacy control is still don't connect the tv

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to the internet if you do nothing else remember

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this a toggle is a promise a network cable is

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physics your tv wants to be on your wi -fi and

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it's not for your benefit if you want a screen

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buy a screen keep it offline, then make the smart

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part a separate device you can control or unplug

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when it gets a little too creepy. Visit TylerWoodward

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.me, follow at TylerWoodward .me on Instagram

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and threads, subscribe and like the show on your

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favorite podcast platform. I'll catch you next

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week, hopefully with less scary news.