Artem Ervits

the opinions expressed are strictly my own and not necessarily those of my employer

[Average Database CEO @AvgDatabaseCEO]

Snowflake and databrick’d (owner of downtime Postgres Neon) are fighting.

[The Best @TheBestqueenx]

Next level parking!

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

When you realize your sibling got more seeds…

[Mossadil Commentary @MOSSADil]

🚨 Elon Musk explains the lesson everyone can learn from Israel.

@elonmusk
@c14english

[DuckDuckGo @DuckDuckGo]

Samsung users: notice anything new since the One UI update? Google just hardwired itself onto your home screen. Even if you chose DuckDuckGo.

[Artem Ervits @dbist]

@strimblez https://t.co/BRBeDiuZ6a

[Spencer Pratt @spencerpratt]

This is the entire DSA platform.

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

«Never tell your electrical engineer parent you want to be a transformer for Halloween»

[StopAntisemitism @StopAntisemites]

Meet @SpaceX employee Aaron Hamm.

His posts repeatedly push antisemitic conspiracy theories, including claims that:
- Israel knew about 9/11
- Jews are taking over & control America
- Israel sets wildfires abroad to drive down land prices

Imagine being his Jewish coworker?!

[Israel Now @neveragainlive1]

Moshe Feiglin provides a proper Jewish response to a hostile reporter from Canada

[Artem Ervits @dbist]

@strimblez didn't post the finished product but if interested, I can.

[Artem Ervits @dbist]

@strimblez https://t.co/p4B6SS9kfU

finished product

[Kate @kate_p45]

THIS is how you run an ad. 🔥

Every Republican should be running ads like this.

Blakeman just turned Hochul's whole record into a comedy sketch, and it's going to leave a mark.😂

[The Best @TheBestqueenx]

You got to protect a work of art like that.🤣🤣

[Visegrád 24 @visegrad24]

BREAKING:

Marine Le Pen officially launches her next campaign for the French presidency in Orleans.

Jordan Bardella resoundingly re-elected as president of the party, securing 99% in the internal vote

[Mossadil Commentary @MOSSADil]

🚨 TRUMP: JEWS WHO SUPPORT EL-SAYED SHOULD BE “ASHAMED OF THEMSELVES”

At a Michigan rally, Trump blasted Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed, who accuses Israel of genocide and opposes US arms sales to Israel.

“Any Jewish person that supports this guy should be ashamed of themselves.”

“You should never speak to them again.”

[Nick Sortor @nicksortor]

🚨 WOW! The father of Todd Beamer — the Flight 93 HERO who famously said "LET'S ROLL" on 9/11 — just took the stage at Trump's Michigan rally and TORCHED Abdul El-Sayed, AOC, and the entire socialist squad

"Let them take their energy and their money, go buy an island someplace and try that socialism thing SOMEWHERE ELSE!"

"They might even take Comrade AOC with them. They might take the COMRADES of the squad with them."

Mr. Beamer wanted to make clear: WE CAN NEVER FORGET ABOUT 9/11 BY ELECTING ISLAMISTS LIKE ABDUL.

Before he left the stage, Mr. Beamer led the whole crowd in Todd's famous last words:

"One three! One, two, three — LET'S ROLL!" 🇺🇸

[The Best @TheBestqueenx]

There’s always someone smarter.
This cashier seized the moment. 😂😂

[Tristan @Tristan0x]

If you've ever wondered why smart TVs are so cheap, this is why.

@log4j rooted his Samsung and found an always-on hot mic, automatic content recognition, geolocation, network mapping, ad targeting and user profiling, shared with Samsung's "400 partners".

A lot of it can be blocked in <15 min, wrote a basic guide below.

What your TV is doing

The main culprit is ACR (automatic content recognition). Your TV screenshots what's on screen, fingerprints it, and sends it home to build your ad profile. Samsung does it every 500ms, LG every 10ms [1].

What is insane: it happens on connected devices too.
Plug in your laptop, your console, your work machine, and your TV can fingerprint that via HDMI [1].
He also found that if your Samsung doesn't have a mic, it'll look for one from a connected soundbar or bluetooth device.
https://t.co/vNdTnIQ6KF
It's on by default, and you likely agreed to it on the setup screen you clicked through in 10 seconds.

Step 1: Turn off ACR

Samsung: Terms & Privacy → Viewing Information Services
LG: Live Plus
Vizio: Viewing Data
Roku: "Use info from TV inputs"
Sony/Google TV: Samba Interactive TV

Menus vary by model, but those are the names to look for. While you're in there, opt out of interest-based ads, reset your advertising ID, decline every optional privacy agreement, turn off voice recognition, and delete apps you never open.

Step 2: Give smart devices their own network

Put the TV, cameras, speakers and vacuum on your router's guest/IoT network. The logic is simple: these devices rarely get patched. If one gets compromised (getting drastically more frequent with AI), it shouldn't be able to see your other devices or home network.

Step 3: Block trackers for the whole house with DNS-level filtering

NextDNS (cloud-based) is easy and has a solid free plan. Pi-hole is a little bit more work if you prefer self hosting. For simplicity we'll focus on the former.

1. Sign up at https://t.co/IwhafVWVM8 (free tier is plenty)
2. Privacy tab: add a blocklist (OISD is a good bet) and turn on Native Tracking Protection for Samsung, LG, Roku, Amazon (see attached image)
3. Setup tab: copy your endpoint
4. Paste it into your router's DNS settings as DNS-over-HTTPS/TLS (or use the IPs + "Link IP" if your router only does plain DNS)
5. Bonus: block outbound port 53 except to your router. Some devices hardcode their own DNS to get around you

Then open the NextDNS logs and watch how often your TV phones home. It's eye-opening. If an app or update breaks, find the domain in the logs and allowlist it.

Why they do this

TV prices are down 97% since 2000 [2]. Most of that is better manufacturing and brutal competition. But once margins on the hardware hit zero, the cost moved to you.

In Q3 2024, Vizio lost $6.7M selling TVs and made $115.8M in gross profit from ads and viewing data [3]. They've said on earnings calls that they keep TV prices low to grow the audience they sell to advertisers. Walmart bought them in 2024.

This isn't a conspiracy theory either. Vizio paid $2.2M to the FTC in 2017 for tracking 11 million TVs without consent. Last December, Texas sued Samsung, LG, Sony, Hisense and TCL over ACR. Samsung and LG have since agreed to stop collecting that data without explicit consent [4].

TL;DR
1. ACR off
2. Ads + voice off
3. Smart devices on their own network
4. NextDNS filtering on the router

Sources:
[1] ACR study: https://t.co/S1IS8lXNbA
[2] Cost of US consumer goods: https://t.co/nclXELXcbd
[3] Vizio Q3 2024: https://t.co/CrVbwc9ZXk
[4] Texas v. Samsung: https://t.co/wFOUdeh1if

[Wake Up NJ 🇺🇸 New Jersey @wakeupnj]

Did you vote yet NJ? Just left early voting, we seriously need to have a talk about Voter ID

I could literally say I'm anyone and go vote in NJ, it's kinda insane, they don't check anything to verify, my picture isn't on the tablet they have, let wtf are we doing!?

Otherwise, the poll workers were efficient, and move alot of folks fast through the long lines. No electioneering at all, make sure you get out to vote Jersey