Updated my Samsung phone and it installed unwanted apps

SaltyEggs@lemmy.world to Mildly Infuriating@lemmy.world – 1543 points –
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I disabled my DNS block-list for 5 minutes to test something, and my Samsung TV used its newfound freedom to immediately go and automatically install the TikTok app from its app store. It no longer gets the privilege of an internet connection.

Shouldn't have ever connected it in the first place. I spent $30 on a Chromecast that gets plugged in and connected.

That has to be an American-market thing, really.

My Samsung TV has never pulled this shit. It used to have free Internet access, now it's behind a DNS blocker because it wants to do phone home a LOT, but even when I unblocked it to download an app I wanted, it didn't do shit that it shouldn't have.

It's still likely the last Samsung TV I'll ever own - I don't like the app availability on Tizen much - but I just don't see all this adware that everyone keeps talking about. Mine's a 2019 model though, maybe it's only newer ones?

This was in Europe - 2019 model as well. Must have been around 2021 or so, when TikTok was just taking off.