Post #4312915

The combination of widespread surveillance, ads-fuelled economy and AI has ushered an era of cross-pollinated monsters that defy even the imagination of the most creative Black Mirror writer. Beware of some cheap HDMI TV sticks (like the H96MAX Screencast). Gone are the “boring” days of TV sticks that would “just” scoop juicy data out of everything you watch on your TV. Nowadays, some TV sticks connect in the background to AI-generated websites and click on ads. Picture it like the perfect money printing machine. The effort of creating an AI-generated blog is basically zero. The effort of installing some custom Android TV image on a stock HDMI stick is also near zero in places like China. The effort of adding ads to your blog and funnel money back to you is also basically zero. Not only, but it looks like the ads were visible only when those pages were opened with the user agents used by the sticks. Which means that the businesses who paid to get their ads shown actually never got anyone to see them or click on them. They were included on a bunch of zombie AI blogs, visible only to a bunch of zombie TV sticks, and only clicked by those TV sticks. No humans in the loop, and a free fully automated money flow. https://krebsonsecurity.com/2026/07/read-this-before-you-buy-that-tv-streaming-stick/