Researcher finds Bright Data SDK can turn smart TVs into web-scraping proxies without user consent
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Summary
A researcher reverse-engineered Bright Data's iOS SDK and discovered it can turn consumer devices—including always-on smart TVs—into exit nodes for web-scraping traffic used for AI training. The findings reveal a significant consent gap in Bright Data's proxy model, where home IP addresses and bandwidth are utilized without clear user awareness, potentially bypassing VPNs and running silently in the background on devices like Roku, Samsung Tizen, and LG webOS.
Key quotes
· 3 pulledA researcher reverse-engineered Bright Data's iOS SDK and found it can turn consumer devices, including always-on smart TVs, into exit nodes for web-scraping traffic.
The findings highlight a consent gap in Bright Data's proxy model, where home IPs and bandwidth are used for AI-driven scraping through devices that may bypass VPNs and run in the background.
Bright Data's SDK can relay scraping jobs through consumer devices using home internet connections.
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