‘Free’ streaming devices
can bargain with your security

Third-party streaming boxes promise free access to movies, TV shows, and live channels, but they come with many other significant costs.

While these unlicensed media players have grown in popularity and may look harmless, they rely on illegal sources for content and create serious security risks and legal liabilities for both you and Golden West. They can cause big issues not just for the household using them, but for everyone connected to the Golden West network and beyond.

Meeting legal obligations

While owning these media players isn’t illegal, using them to stream copyrighted content without permission is. Many people may not realize they are pirating programming, but once Golden West is notified a device is violating copyright laws, the cooperative must require that the activity stops.

Along with legitimate streaming services, Golden West works closely with trusted content partners to provide reliable, high-quality TV entertainment. Allowing piracy devices to operate unchecked undermines those partnerships and threatens future viewing opportunities.

Golden West cannot fix or troubleshoot these devices. To protect your connection and personal information, you should use licensed streaming services with trusted equipment such as Roku, Amazon Firestick, and Chromecast devices.

Protecting your network and you

To avoid detection, some of these off-brand streaming boxes frequently change their device name on the Wi-Fi network. They often send and receive content from unverified overseas servers and run outdated software with known vulnerabilities.

As a result, these devices can:

  • Spread malware
  • Launch denial-of-service attacks, flooding networks
  • Scan other devices on the home network
  • Create backdoors for hackers
Think twice before connecting

These gray-market streaming devices appeal to customers by offering access to content at discounted prices. But the trade-offs are steep: legal exposure, cybersecurity threats, and unstable performance. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

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