Your Smart TV Knows What You’re Watching – The Markup
themarkup.org
Here’s how to turn off “automated content recognition,” the Shazam-like software on smart TVs that tracks what you’re watching

These TVs can capture and identify 7,200 images per hour, or approximately two every second. The data is then used for content recommendations and ad targeting, which is a huge business; advertisers spent an estimated $18.6 billion on smart TV ads in 2022, according to market research firm eMarketer.

  • @Alexstarfire
    9•1 year ago

    Considering I don’t connect it to the internet I’d be surprised if it was doing anything.

      • @[email protected]
        3•1 year ago

        “I’m in”

        • your TV after hacking the neighbors tv.

        Joke aside, would that make it basically anonymous? Unless it’s actually sending screenshots, it will only tell “somebody around this IP is watching TV/Something from HDMI”

        • @Linus_Torvalds
          2•1 year ago

          Would that make it basically anonymous?

          Well, no. I think there is so much information in there, that the IP address is your least concern.

          • @[email protected]
            1•1 year ago

            What personally identification information is there? Sure, they can know everything is from the same user/household, but they can’t know it’s you by name, email, phone, address… That’s what I mean by anonymous instead of private

            • @Linus_Torvalds
              2•1 year ago

              I guess it is somewhat like paying in cash for your groceries: While anonymous, only you buy at this time of the day your favourite 3 food products, a cup of gluten-free instant ramen and a period product.

              I would be concerned about this scenario:

              • Company X has your TV data (but doesn’t know your name, etc)
              • Company Y, Z, … know your name and have data on you.
              • They buy/share/whatever data and intersect it. Now they can probably connect the data they have on you.
      • @[email protected]English
        3•1 year ago

        You joke… but isn’t that what Amazon Sidewalk was invented for? And isn’t it sort of what AirTags do? They don’t connect to the internet… they connect to partner devices in ways that are unseen by the owners to co-opt their internet access.

        I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Samsung TVs without internet access are using nearby Samsung phones to connect to the internet. Or maybe they partner with the ISP to use those default guest wifi networks. If news broke tomorrow that this was already a thing, it wouldn’t surprise me at all.