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Viewing Data Harvested From Smart TVs Used To Push Ads To Other Screens? (securityledger.com)
chicksdaddy writes: In the latest episode of EULA overreach, electronics maker Vizio Holdings has been called out by the non profit investigative reporting outfit ProPublica for an on-by-default feature on its smart TVs called "Smart Interactivity" that analyzes both broadcast and streamed content viewed using the device. ProPublica noted that the company's privacy policy failed to clearly describe the tracking behavior, which included the collection of information such as the date, time, channel and whether the program was viewed live or recorded.
According to ProPublica, the monitoring of viewing information through IP addresses, while it does not identify individuals, can be combined with other data available in commercial databases from brokers such as Experian, creating a detailed picture of an individual or household. Vizio has since updated its privacy policy with a supplement that explains how "Smart Interactivity" works.
The bigger issue may be what that updated privacy policy reveals. As The Security Ledger notes, the updated Vizio privacy policy makes clear that the company will combine "your IP address and other Non-Personal Information in order to inform third party selection and delivery of targeted and re-targeted advertisements." Those advertisements "may be delivered to smartphones, tablets, PCs or other internet-connected devices that share an IP address or other identifier with your Smart TV."
In other words, TV viewing patterns will be used to serve ads to any device user who happens to be connected to the same network as the Vizio Smart TV — an obvious problem for households with a mix of say... adults and children?! Vizio does provide instructions for disabling the Smart Interactivity features and says that "connected" features of the device aren't contingent on monitoring. That's better than some other vendors. In 2014, for example, LG used a firmware update for its smart televisions to link the "smart" features of the device to viewer tracking and monitoring. Viewers who applied the update, but refused to consent to monitoring were not able to use services like Netflix and YouTube.
According to ProPublica, the monitoring of viewing information through IP addresses, while it does not identify individuals, can be combined with other data available in commercial databases from brokers such as Experian, creating a detailed picture of an individual or household. Vizio has since updated its privacy policy with a supplement that explains how "Smart Interactivity" works.
The bigger issue may be what that updated privacy policy reveals. As The Security Ledger notes, the updated Vizio privacy policy makes clear that the company will combine "your IP address and other Non-Personal Information in order to inform third party selection and delivery of targeted and re-targeted advertisements." Those advertisements "may be delivered to smartphones, tablets, PCs or other internet-connected devices that share an IP address or other identifier with your Smart TV."
In other words, TV viewing patterns will be used to serve ads to any device user who happens to be connected to the same network as the Vizio Smart TV — an obvious problem for households with a mix of say... adults and children?! Vizio does provide instructions for disabling the Smart Interactivity features and says that "connected" features of the device aren't contingent on monitoring. That's better than some other vendors. In 2014, for example, LG used a firmware update for its smart televisions to link the "smart" features of the device to viewer tracking and monitoring. Viewers who applied the update, but refused to consent to monitoring were not able to use services like Netflix and YouTube.
"In other words, TV viewing patterns will be used to serve ads to any device user who happens to be connected to the same network as the Vizio Smart TV — an obvious problem for households with a mix of say... adults and children?"
How about a house with a mix of older and younger adults. My kids (23 and 21) watch all sorts of stuff that I don't and watch a lot more TV than me so my TV, laptop or whatever device on the same network would show ads that are dominated by the tastes of my children.
Similarly how about students or other similar groups who share a house, and thereby the same IP address. The advertising would be a mishmash of varying tastes or maybe dominated by the one guy who has the TV on all day to provide "white noise" in the background.
Why "smart" internet connected TV's are a bad idea. If a device (any device) can spy on you to gather information a marketer might want, you should probably assume it will.
Get a "dumb" TV (or a smart TV that you don't set up to connect to the internet), and use a dedicated device that you choose (and preferably an open one like XBMC that you explicitly control) to stream content to it. It's not much more expensive, and isolating components to only do the thing you expect them to do prevents this kind of attack on your privacy.
"Viewers who applied the update, but refused to consent to monitoring were not able to use services like Netflix and YouTube."
Another reason to use torrents and VPNs instead of apple tv, chromecast, netflix, hulu and so on.
I have a 'smart' TV as well, but I just use it as a monitor, no network cable attached.
I'm starting to wonder about people. I used to have cable and spent what seems like way too much time watching TV. These days it's all OTA and I have other interests and TiVo gets piled up with things I enjoy watching because I'm busy with other things. What I start to wonder is whether people should be spending less time watching TV and more time doing other things.
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!