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(Vizio customers got between $17 and $31 from the class action)

That fine is literally one thousandth of their yearly revenue. Basically rounding error.

I guess the 17 million fine might be 1% of their revenue. Not *quite* rounding error but nothing that's going to slow them down either.

I’ve had the same (dumb with a b) Vizio flatscreen TV for more than 15 years. My secret? I never turn it off. I use a Google Chromecast to connect to it. 

I wonder how much technical literacy would help here. Most people outsource their home network to whatever company sets up their internet - which... I actually never framed it exactly like that before. Shit, that's terrifying.

they've been trying for years, I think what's most needed are for companies to be genuinely afraid of regulators again

smart tvs require internet access, so who set up your local network is irrelevant. You can avoid that by plugging in a streaming device, but that just pushes the problem to that device. Digital privacy regulations with serious penalties are the approach that would work.

You can maintain granular control over access and, importantly, you have visibility into who devices are trying to talk to. Even with a streaming device people still set up their TV. A single device reduces your exposure so you're not just shifting the problem, you're minimizing its surface area.