Unfortunately it still spies on you if you connect to the web :S

I guess you can mitigate that if you use something like a pi-hole? I do wish there was a solution using root/devmode to block ads (or better yet, run in whitelist mode!).

You're correct on all points.

However, if you do have an pihole/adguard home, this list does get rid of all the ads: https://gist.github.com/d4kine/b2458cc9d693d7d36193be0247094...

Hmm but I'm skeptical. All it takes is an update and the list is no longer relevant. And there's no guarantee that data isn't passed anyways through the domains that are not blocked.

Still, would love an "opensnitch" in whitelist mode for my TV!

As you should be, I can only claim it blocks ads because that's my experience. I don't know if I'm being tracked.

But it has worked blocked the ads since 2023, so that's something.