Internet security is something that more and more people are worried about today. News of hacked accounts, stolen passwords or identity theft due to security breaches that users commit with their devices come to light daily. You may be careful what you do and where you go with your phone or your computer, but what about your television? 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. Remember that, like your computer or your mobile phone, most of the televisions that we can buy today are smart equipment and, therefore, can be connected 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 have nothing on TV,” are you sure? Assuming that you probably started this team with your Gmail account , the one you probably use to access the bank account, where you have all your passwords hosted 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 an equally important device to protect than 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 the outside to the inside, starting with those tips and precautions that you can follow externally to your smart TV:
- WiFi connection : it may seem silly but, in case the flies, we remind you that it is not recommended to connect your computers to public WiFi networks, since these are a free buffet 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.
- Firewall : in relation to WiFi connectivity, if your router allows it, we recommend that you activate the “Firewall” or Firewall option. This is nothing more than a section that you can configure on your router and that will act as an extra security against unauthorized access to it.
- USB memories : something super typical is to connect USB memories of any type to a Smart TV to see the photos and videos that are inside. If it is a device that only you operate on your own computers, the chances of it containing some type of virus are reduced. But, if they are from other people, you will not know with certainty the precautions that they may take with their privacy. Therefore, be careful with which USB memory sticks you connect to your TV 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 discover anything, since it is a basic “rule” in this sense. As in other equipment, periodically there will be minimal updates to the system that your smart TV has: Android TV, Tizen, WebOS, etc. These updates that do not make visual changes are usually the latest security patches that developers have created to close “holes” that hackers could sneak into. Keeping your equipment updated is as simple as accessing the settings of your Smart TV and activating the option “Automatic updates” or “Keep my equipment updated automatically”.
- Unknown sources : this is perhaps the most important point within this category. Non-“original” or official content from your TV’s operating system can bring 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 TV, do not access “strange” web pages or of dubious reputation.
- Permissions : another important detail, which you can access within the TV’s application settings, are the permissions we give to all the apps installed on the system. Review this section and limit those that do not fit with what you think that app should request.
- Privacy Settings : depending on the system your television has, the way to access it may vary. In this section you will see the information that you are sharing through TV. If any of these concerns you, you can limit or stop sharing them.
These are the best security methods 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 solve it for you as soon as possible.
