I’ve found that in those cases its usually explorer that’s the culprit. Just having the removable drive open in explorer is enough to keep windows from being able to unmount the drive.

Lg TVs do occasionally nag you about connecting to the internet but are otherwise fine completely disconnected.

And even if they are. The fines are low enough that its a cost of doing business for the most part. Especially in comparison to the amount of money they make spying. Possibly on top of whatever else they sell depending on the business in question.

Most insidious part about the whole thing is the fact that most legal stuff is “licensed” rather than owned. A convenient legal fiction to allow them to revoke access at any time and (likely) keep your money.

Legal stuff isn’t much better these days. Advertisements unless you pau more, user tracking regardless, etc.

At least with a TV you can actually turn off the WiFi and just not connect a network cable to it. In my case the TV periodically tries to connect and prompts me to check the network settings, so I’m fairly sure its not trying to randomly connect to an open WiFi network. YMMV I suppose. A decent workaround would be to set up a diff router or ssid and just blackhole that network from getting online at all. But that can be more technical than some people are comfortable with.

Don’t connect the TV to the internet. Buy a settop box like a shield TV and stream through that.

No, one need only look at the windows recall debacle to see how corporations would abuse the chip, not to mention the potential for advertising beamed directly to your brain and the possibility of malware. Hell even discounting all of that, not that you should by any means, how would upgrading work?

A 3d remake like chrono cross got could be good

Gaming and reading.

A calvacade of concerns:

1. Black Sheep - I’m the black sheep of the family for various reasons too numerous to get I into here. But suffice to say I have effectively zero contact with most of my immediate family except for my parents. My parents keep trying to force me into fitting into their own view of things, whether it be religion, antivax, etc which has put strain on the relationship when I refuse to fit their mold for me.

2. Forgotten - I’m forgotten by any friends/family that I do still have contact with. They rarely, if ever, reach out on their own initiative. I rarely reach out partly because I’m busy with my own stuff and simply don’t remember to do so, partly because I’m tired of always initiating, and partly because I don’t see the point, as I’ve been burned too many times before and it likely won’t last anyway.

3. Money - I have significant debt that I’m years away from paying off with my current budget, both due to necessary expenditures and not so necessary ones. I’m also significantly behind on my retirement savings, especially if I want to have anywhere near my current income when I retire, if I can ever afford to. Add day to day expenses and couple that with both a desire to still occasionally frivolously spend money and a strong loathing of being in debt and you have a recipe for significant stress all on its own.

4. Covid - I’m one of those people who has enough health concerns that I want to play it extremely safe when it comes to potentially contracting the virus. This has put a serious damper on trying to go out and meet new people.

Frankly I think its a minor miracle that I’ve managed to hold it together as well as I have.

And even if you beat all of that. You can still be crucified in the court of public opinion. As much as it may be cathartic to see x person being sent to prison for whatever reason there are significant issues with “naming and shaming” someone simply accused of a crime, of which there is a non zero chance that they are innocent. Sure name and shame them after they’re convicted if you must, to show everyone the system still works or whatever. But not before then because that stuff can seriously derail your life.