Internet security is something that nowadays worries more and more people. News of hacked accounts, stolen passwords or identity theft due to security breaches committed by users with their devices comes to light daily. You may be careful what you do and where you go with your phone or your computer, but what about your TV? Today we explain everything you can do to improve your privacy on a Smart TV.
Control the security of your Smart TV
This may sound like a very fanciful situation to you, but let us tell you that it is not far from reality. Think that, like your computer or your mobile phone, most of the televisions that we can buy today they are intelligent equipment and therefore can be connect to the Internet.
This already opens up a huge range of possibilities and plausible situations in which an individual can reach this computer and, therefore, steal all the information that is hosted on this TV. You may also be thinking "but if I don't have anything on TV", are you sure? Assuming that you probably started this team with your Gmail account, the one you probably use to enter the bank account, where you have all your passwords stored by Google and, through this, many more things.
Knowing all this, and we already apologize for having placed you in the worst and most dramatic of situations, a Smart TV becomes just as important a device to protect as any other. How can you improve privacy in it? You can do it both externally and internally.
Improve the privacy and security of your external Smart TV
Let's go from outside to inside, starting with those tips and precautions that you can follow externally to your smart TV:
WiFi connection: It may seem silly but, just in case, we remind you that it is not recommended to connect your equipment to networks Public WiFi, as these are an all you can eat for cyber criminals. If your television is for home, you will not have this problem but, in the case of buying it for your own business, be very careful with this.
firewalls: in relation to WiFi connectivity, if your router allows it, we recommend that you activate the option of "Firewall" or Firewall. This is nothing more than a section that you can configure in your router and that will act as extra security against unauthorized access to it.
USB flash drives: something super typical is connecting USB memories of any kind to a Smart TV to see the photos and videos inside. If it is a device that only you manage on your own computers, the chances that they contain some kind of virus reduced. But, if they belong to other people, you will not know for sure what precautions they may take with their privacy. Therefore, be careful with which USB memories you connect to your television because they could infect the system.
Privacy and security tips for your internal Smart TV
Now let's see everything we can do internally on our television to try to maintain our privacy in the face of a cyber attack:
Updates: in this section we are not going to reveal anything to you, since it is a basic “rule” in this sense. As in other equipment, minimal updates will arrive periodically to the system that your smart TV has: Android TV, Tizen, WebOS, etc. Are updates that do not make visual changes are usually the last security patches that the developers have created to close “holes” through which hackers could sneak in. Keeping your device up to date is as simple as accessing your Smart TV settings and activating the "Automatic updates" or "Keep my device updated automatically" option.
Unknown sources: This is perhaps the most important point within this category. He content other than "original" or official by the operating system of your television can bring with it malware that infects your computer. To avoid this type of situation, it is best not to install applications from unknown sources (you can deactivate this option from the Smart TV settings) and, of course, if you browse from the television, do not access "strange" web pages or of dubious reputation.
Permissions: Another important detail, which you can access within the settings of the TV applications, are the permitsthat we give to all installed apps in the system. Review this section and limit those that do not fit with what you think said app should request.
Privacy Settings: depending on the system that your television has, the way to access it may vary. In this section you will see the information that you are sharing through the TV. If any of these concern you, you can limit or stop sharing them.
These are the best security methods that you can use to keep your information safe on a Smart TV. If you have any questions about them, leave us a comment and we will try to resolve them as soon as possible.
