Ask Slashdot: Can Smart TVs Insert Ads Into Your Movies? (gigaom.com)

dryriver writes: Back in 2015, the owners of some Samsung smart TVs complained about their viewing of films and other content being constantly interrupted by a recurring Pepsi ad. It turned out that yes, the Samsung TV itself was inserting the ad into content.

Samsung said at the time that it was a software glitch that caused this. They left a function on by default that should have been off when they shipped the TVs. But it proves that Smart TVs have an unnerving capability built into them -- the ability to interrupt content playback with product ads actually stored on the TV itself.

So here's the question -- what if all Smart TV makers suddenly decide that having the ability to push custom ads to the owner of the TV is "fair game"? What if they decide "You want to own this model of TV for XXX Dollars? Well, you can have it, but we'll reserve the right to show you customized advertising as you are viewing stuff with it"? Are there any laws anywhere that would protect TV owners from such intrusive advertising?

Comments

Re:The law of economics

[The Cynical Critic]

Only problem is that just about all TVs in the mid-range and up are smart TV's these days. Plenty of dumb TV's in the lower end of the market, but they get more and more scarce the higher you go. Apart from really cheapo brands that often use panels that are LG and Samsung quality control rejects, I don't think anyone makes an OLED panel TV that isn't a smart one.

Thankfully this not a problem I have to deal with as like with many of us millennials, I've realized that a TV is just another redundant device I can do without and have done so since I moved out of my parents' house. Only reason I have any clue about TVs is because I've had to recommend one for my technically inept parents.