Another option if you have good control over your router is to put the TV and other smart devices on a special subnet or vlan and only occasionally give it internet access for updates, etc. Maybe there's a good DNS-based ad blocker you could run on its vlan and nuke all of its ad and spy traffic too.
This actually seems like a good market opportunity for yet another home device, a router with aggressive spyware and ad mitigation that's made to explicitly connect all your smart gadgets and untrusted devices that phone home.
Well, no - GP an isn’t exactly correct. They use DNS, they just won’t use your configured DNS. You can play NAT tricks to force all UDP dns queries to your pihole or other DNS based blocker, but they can just as easily use DOH.
>A white hat (or a white hat hacker) is an ethical security hacker.[1] Ethical hacking is a term meant to imply a broader category than just penetration testing.[2][3] Under the owner's consent, white hat hackers aim to identify any vulnerabilities the current system has. [...] There is a third kind of hacker known as a grey hat who hacks with good intentions but at times without permission.[6]
I use a Pi-hole for the network, but this doesn't block YouTube ads (sadly). Since I refuse to see ads of any stripe ever, I discovered that my Amazon Firestick can be put in developer mode and then install SmartTubeNext. Looks very similar to YouTube, but blocks all ads, sponsor content, and other nonsense. Pure videos.
I of course also use UBlock Origin, Privacy Badger, Decentraleyes, and Referer Block on the laptop in addition to the Pi-hole. I do the same at work, as they allowed me to use a Pi-hole since I'm IT and on my own portion of the network on a private VLAN.
Since some people use laptops in lieu of TVs, you can always use FreeTube, which blocks ads by default and can also be proxied in the settings so YouTube cannot see your location.
https://freetubeapp.io/
This actually seems like a good market opportunity for yet another home device, a router with aggressive spyware and ad mitigation that's made to explicitly connect all your smart gadgets and untrusted devices that phone home.