youd need a proper firewall to actually know for sure, or set up some sort of network sniffing.
a simple countermeasure is isolating clients between themselves when applicable, even most consumer grade routers can do it.
this may or may not break functionality, but if the app stops working without internet, chances are its going to the internet instead anyway and its gonna be fine.
It’s more devices that enable apps and programs to have access to your local network.
There are no easy and fast solutions. The best option is to avoid all “corporate” (i.e. non-DIY) smart devices and never connect them to the internet. It may be helpful to get a Pi-Hole running which provides a final layer of defence that catches and block’s random stuff (but not everything).
Pi-hole is also a fun project for getting into SBCs/Raspberry Pi. It’s cheap and you get a nice little dashboard of all the spyware that it blocks:
I will note that a Pi-Hole most probably won’t help against Eight Sleep (since it sounds like you need it to have remote access to use it), but it’s good to block random spyware embedded in many seemingly legit applications.
You can also add a bunch of useful services to the SBC/Raspberry Pi like NAS, Media Server, download client and much more.
Got you, I’m screwed because I have a smart tv. I didn’t realize that they could all talk to each other. I didn’t care if they saw what I watched, I do care if they can get on my laptop or phone.
They might not necessarily get on your laptop or phone (to be honest they probably can’t), but there is a risk they can.
I would strongly recommend using the TV purely as a HDMI output device and not using the “smart” functions of the TV. Buy yourself a Raspberry Pi (it will cost less than $100 out of pocket even if you go overboard) and set up a media server with say Kodi or Jellyfin. PM me if you feel like it and I will point you in the right direction (good forums where people will help you and answer intro questions without being annoying).
Thank you for the explanation, so it’s as bad as I thought. How do I know what apps and programs have access to my network?
youd need a proper firewall to actually know for sure, or set up some sort of network sniffing.
a simple countermeasure is isolating clients between themselves when applicable, even most consumer grade routers can do it.
this may or may not break functionality, but if the app stops working without internet, chances are its going to the internet instead anyway and its gonna be fine.
It’s more devices that enable apps and programs to have access to your local network.
There are no easy and fast solutions. The best option is to avoid all “corporate” (i.e. non-DIY) smart devices and never connect them to the internet. It may be helpful to get a Pi-Hole running which provides a final layer of defence that catches and block’s random stuff (but not everything).
Pi-hole is also a fun project for getting into SBCs/Raspberry Pi. It’s cheap and you get a nice little dashboard of all the spyware that it blocks:
I will note that a Pi-Hole most probably won’t help against Eight Sleep (since it sounds like you need it to have remote access to use it), but it’s good to block random spyware embedded in many seemingly legit applications.
You can also add a bunch of useful services to the SBC/Raspberry Pi like NAS, Media Server, download client and much more.
Got you, I’m screwed because I have a smart tv. I didn’t realize that they could all talk to each other. I didn’t care if they saw what I watched, I do care if they can get on my laptop or phone.
They might not necessarily get on your laptop or phone (to be honest they probably can’t), but there is a risk they can.
I would strongly recommend using the TV purely as a HDMI output device and not using the “smart” functions of the TV. Buy yourself a Raspberry Pi (it will cost less than $100 out of pocket even if you go overboard) and set up a media server with say Kodi or Jellyfin. PM me if you feel like it and I will point you in the right direction (good forums where people will help you and answer intro questions without being annoying).
Thanks again. If I get a breather this summer, I’ll look to you for direction to the right forums.