Free Apps Are Quietly Turning Smart TVs Into Web-Scraping Proxies for AI

A researcher has reverse-engineered the iOS SDK that Bright Data embeds in consumer apps and documented how it turns devices, including always-on smart TVs, into exit nodes that relay web-scraping traffic for a data business Bright Data markets heavily to the AI industry. The company, the successor to Luminati, operates what it calls the largest residential proxy network in the world,

The article reports that a researcher reverse‑engineered Bright Data’s iOS SDK and found it quietly turns consumer devices, including always‑on smart TVs, into residential proxy exit nodes that relay web‑scraping traffic, which Bright Data then markets heavily to AI companies. This effectively embeds a data‑collection and proxy infrastructure inside third‑party consumer apps, creating a large residential proxy network used for AI‑related web scraping without users’ clear understanding or explicit, informed consent. From a CyberSE.AI perspective, this represents an AI supply‑chain and governance risk: AI teams may unknowingly rely on data obtained through opaque or ethically questionable residential proxy networks, and organizations distributing apps with such SDKs may face compliance, privacy, and reputational exposure. Security programs should treat embedded SDKs as third‑party components, requiring SBOMs, code and data‑flow review, explicit consent models, and policies that govern the provenance and legality of data used to train or feed AI systems.