I stopped letting my smart TV spy on me—a $50 Raspberry Pi made it dumb again

Published Sep 30, 2026, 2:00 PM EDT Nick Lewis is an editor at How-To Geek. He has been using computers for 20 years --- tinkering with everything from the UI to the Windows registry to device firmware. Before How-To Geek, he used Python and C++ as a freelance programmer. In college, Nick made extensive use of Fortran while pursuing a physics degree. Nick's love of tinkering with computers extends beyond work. He has been running video game servers from home for more than 10 years using Windows, Ubuntu, or Raspberry Pi OS. He also uses Proxmox to self-host a variety of services, including a Jellyfin Media Server, an Airsonic music server, a handful of game servers, NextCloud, and two Windows virtual machines. He enjoys DIY projects, especially if they involve technology. He regularly repairs and repurposes old computers and hardware for whatever new project is at hand. He has designed crossovers for homemade speakers all the way from the basic design to the PCB. Nick enjoys the outdoors. When he isn't working on a computer or DIY project, he is most likely to be found camping, backpacking, or canoeing. Most smart TVs do more than display images and videos—they collect information. Sometimes, that information is just about your viewing habits using automated content recognition (ACR). Other times, your TV records snippets of conversations or information about other devices on the network or in Wi-Fi range. To make matters worse, you often pay for the privilege with ads that clutter up your home screen or inject themselves when you pause whatever show you're watching. If you want to reclaim your privacy without getting rid of your fancy TV, you can do it with an open-source operating system and a small computer, like a Raspberry Pi 4 or 5. Making a TV dumb without making it useless A Raspberry Pi is all you need Credit: Nick Lewis / How-To Geek The best way to make a TV dumb is to bypass its own operating system. I'll be using LibreELEC. LibreELEC is a minimalist Linux distro specifically designed to boot into Kodi (a media player app) as quickly as possible. The combination gives you library management, functional add-ons, and remote control support without any trackers or advertisements. The entire LibreELEC and Kodi software stack running on the Pi is open-source, which gives you the option to audit exactly what is going on if you really want to. In effect, your TV itself becomes a dumb display. Disable the Wi-Fi, unplug the Ethernet, and connect the Pi to the TV over HDMI-CEC so that your remote controls work as expected. I used a Pi 4 8GB because I had one handy, though realistically, even a 4GB model would be plenty. If you use a Pi 5, you'll get hardware support for 4K video running at 60FPS, but it lacks a hardware H.264 decoder. Fortunately, for 1080P video, that won't matter too much. You can use a mini PC or an old laptop too I used a Raspberry Pi for this because I had one handy, but it isn't strictly necessary. In fact, any modern mini PC will run LibreELEC quite well. You could also get away with using an old laptop too, since the demands are quite modest. My only recommendation would be to keep fan noise in mind; a small fan whirring away at max speed during a tense, quiet moment is going to be very immersion breaking. If you can, keep fans on low. A TV without an internet connection can't phone home Disconnect the Ethernet and Wi-Fi Credit: Michael Bizzaco / How-To Geek ACR works by capturing screenshots intermittently (as often as a few times per second) and analyzing those images to determine what you're watching. The most effective way to stop that is to completely remove your TV's ability to communicate by disconnecting it from wired and wireless networks. Disabling the TV's networking functions also mitigates the risk of surprise software or firmware updates that remove features, bog down the interface, or reset your settings. Kodi is faster and more flexible than a TV's native OS You can pick your own hardware and software Most TVs have fairly low-power SoCs—comparable to the sort of thing you might find in a midrange smartphone. That means your TV may struggle to keep up with whatever bloatware comes installed from the factory. By switching to the Pi, I was able to cut my startup time from about 16 seconds down to less than 10. The menus feel snappier, and everything opens more quickly, probably because the Pi has almost nothing running in the background using up resources. Kodi plays local media from a USB device or a NAS, and you can tie in Jellyfin or Plex if you have a dedicated media server on your network. That means you're not restricted by the formats supported by the TV. I've encountered that problem multiple times over the years when I connected a USB drive and tried to play an unsupported file. You can also customize the experience with different skins, themes, and input methods. You can use a phone app, a Bluetooth remote, or an IR remote, whichever you prefer. I spent some time testing my Pi with a bunch of different controllers while it was connected to a small portable display to see which I liked, and ultimately settled on an Xbox controller. The original Steam controller was a strong runner-up. LibreELEC and a Pi have one big snag The main problem with a LibreELEC setup is digital rights management, or DRM. Kodi doesn't natively support Netflix, Disney+, or the other encrypted streaming services. There are workarounds, but they're not the most reliable solutions. Instead, attach a streaming stick to the TV for those times when you need to use one of the apps. Only switch when you need it to minimize how much data can be collected. Spending $50–$65 on a small board and pairing it with a free operating system turns even the most invasive television into a dumb monitor.