Stop your Smart TV from Spying on You
The definition of a Smart TV
is an internet-connected television loaded with favorite free and paid streaming apps such as Netflix, Hulu and more. The 'more' part is the dangerous part, with all that technology embedded in your new TV do you know what it is doing? or what its capabilities are? Did you know that law enforcement can use your TV speaker to listen in on your home? Yes its true. But we are NOT talking about that today.
A more alarming embedded tech is the TV manufacturer can monitor what you are watching.
Don't think of it as watching what you are watch, this is a process called Automatic Content Recognition (ACR). This tech is supported by most if not all modern Smart TV makers.
What is Automatic Content Recognition (ACR)?
This is a form of ad surveillance technology which gathers information about everything you watch and transmits it to a centralized database. Manufacturers then use your data to identify your viewing preferences, enabling them to deliver highly targeted ads to you and your show selection(s). ACR performs continuous screenshots captures and cross-referencing them on their vast database of media content and advertisements. Your TV can capture up to 7,200 screenshots per hour which boils down to two (2) images per second. So, you know have one reason why your streaming services are buffering so much. Example most home internet packages are sold with a speed for download and a speed for upload (that later tends to be slower speeds.)
Who benefits from ACR?
The marketers are the key benefits as you the Ads are highly targeted (think sniper vs shotgun approach) for pushing out Ads, bringing more potential value to each Ad. Put another way a more concise target audience per Ad spend.
What happens is this ACR database is hacked?
Well that could never happen in today's modern secure IT world. Ha, I laugh at that silly statement, I received two security breach notifications just last week alone. So regardless of how I protect my data there is always the careless leaving the backdoor wide open for someone to take advantage of your sensitive and non-sensitive data. Control what you can.
I recommend EVERYONE check this TV list and follow the instructions to stop this ACR madness ASAP!!!
Think this is something new?
I wrote a blog back in May '21 entitled Your home automation devices are stealing your Internet Bandwidth Everyone is doing it its up to you to stop the madness!
Summary
You are the consumer have the responsibility to protect yourself and your family regardless of the product you purchase. Disable this function on all your Smart TVs and spread the word let's put a big dent in the data that is available to ACR. Tell everyone you know!
