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Panasonic TVs routing traffic through own cloud...

I suspect many people are not aware that some Panasonic Smart TVs route traffic through their own servers. I am not sure it applied to all Panasonic TVs, I think some are re-branded TVs from other manufacturers and that those do not. Anyway, I contacted Panasonic about this.

I had a couple of issues.

1) One issue I have is that I don't like the idea of my traffic be routed to places I was not aware of. I do worry about privacy implications.
2) Some of the apps just freeze up. iPlayer is the one that gets the most use and that freezes regularly.

iPlayer works just fine using a Roku stick plugged into the TV.

The reply I got from Panasonic was:

In response to your query this is done because the Panasonic platform is a custom one and in order for application providers to support our platform.
Furthermore in regards to the applications we do not keep track of what you use and watch we simply direct the traffic through so application providers have an easier time developing applications for our operating systems.
We are sorry for any inconvenience caused by this and I would advise to further look into the Terms of Service .


They did not provide a link to the terms of service and in fairness I have not followed it up. Instead I have given the TV a static IP address and drop all the packets at the firewall. I will be using the Roku from now on. The Panasonic TV is just too unreliable.

But before I did that I did have a quick look at who my TV was talking to and it was quite interesting. It turns out there was not a lot of traffic to Panasonic servers - only data from a very quick look so not much to go on. I did find:


Application ProtocolDurationSentReceivedBreakdownTotal
Total22:105.36 MB730.22 MBSent
Rcvd
735.59 MB
Amazon06:3548.78 KB60.06 KBSent
Rcvd
108.84 KB0.01 %
DHCP00:05373 Bytes342 BytesSent
Rcvd
715 Bytes0 %
DNS03:357.23 KB15.77 KBSent
Rcvd
23 KB0 %
HTTP05:25175.05 KB989.01 KBSent
Rcvd
1.14 MB0.15 %
NetBIOS00:202 KB0 BytesSent
Rcvd
2 KB0 %
NetFlix00:3046.64 KB46.37 KBSent
Rcvd
93.01 KB0.01 %
SSDP00:1028.43 KB0 BytesSent
Rcvd
28.43 KB0 %
SSL19:555.05 MB729.14 MBSent
Rcvd
734.19 MB99.81 %
Unknown07:0010.21 KB2.42 KBSent
Rcvd
12.63 KB0 %

The vast bulk of the SSL was to BBC servers and I did try watching a bit of iPlayer so that explains that. I had not connected to Amazon or NetFlix at all. I don't have an active Amazon Video account! Maybe I am paranoid but I do wonder what my TV is sending to Amazon and NetFlix when I had not even launched the apps on the TV?

Anybody got any ideas? Maybe it just caches some program data or something but that would be incoming data, not outgoing data.....
 
I had not connected to Amazon or NetFlix at all. I don't have an active Amazon Video account! Maybe I am paranoid but I do wonder what my TV is sending to Amazon and NetFlix when I had not even launched the apps on the TV?

Anybody got any ideas? Maybe it just caches some program data or something but that would be incoming data, not outgoing data.....

The apps periodically check for updates, not only of the app itself, but also the latest info within the app, so that when you open it, you're presented with the latest newest shows / movies etc.

They may be also "keepalive" requests: if you did have an account with either or both, the keepalive ensures your account is continuously logged in so that when you open the app it goes straight in without any delay. Obviously those requests would fail with no active account, but the app(s) still make them.
 
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