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How Smart TVs in Millions of US Homes Track More Than What's on Tonight (nytimes.com)
The growing concern over online data and user privacy has been focused on tech giants like Facebook and devices like smartphones. But people's data is also increasingly being vacuumed right out of their living rooms via their televisions, sometimes without their knowledge. From a report: In recent years, data companies have harnessed new technology to immediately identify what people are watching on internet-connected TVs, then using that information to send targeted advertisements to other devices in their homes. Marketers, forever hungry to get their products in front of the people most likely to buy them, have eagerly embraced such practices. But the companies watching what people watch have also faced scrutiny from regulators and privacy advocates over how transparent they are being with users.
Samba TV is one of the bigger companies that track viewer information to make personalized show recommendations. The company said it collected viewing data from 13.5 million smart TVs in the United States, and it has raised $40 million in venture funding from investors including Time Warner, the cable operator Liberty Global and the billionaire Mark Cuban. Samba TV has struck deals with roughly a dozen TV brands -- including Sony, Sharp, TCL and Philips -- to place its software on certain sets. When people set up their TVs, a screen urges them to enable a service called Samba Interactive TV, saying it recommends shows and provides special offers "by cleverly recognizing onscreen content." But the screen, which contains the enable button, does not detail how much information Samba TV collects to make those recommendations.... Once enabled, Samba TV can track nearly everything that appears on the TV on a second-by-second basis, essentially reading pixels to identify network shows and ads, as well as programs on Netflix and HBO and even video games played on the TV.
Samba TV is one of the bigger companies that track viewer information to make personalized show recommendations. The company said it collected viewing data from 13.5 million smart TVs in the United States, and it has raised $40 million in venture funding from investors including Time Warner, the cable operator Liberty Global and the billionaire Mark Cuban. Samba TV has struck deals with roughly a dozen TV brands -- including Sony, Sharp, TCL and Philips -- to place its software on certain sets. When people set up their TVs, a screen urges them to enable a service called Samba Interactive TV, saying it recommends shows and provides special offers "by cleverly recognizing onscreen content." But the screen, which contains the enable button, does not detail how much information Samba TV collects to make those recommendations.... Once enabled, Samba TV can track nearly everything that appears on the TV on a second-by-second basis, essentially reading pixels to identify network shows and ads, as well as programs on Netflix and HBO and even video games played on the TV.
If it can suggest to me some shows that I will enjoy and would otherwise have missed, and it doesn't cost me any money, then I'm all for it. And conversely it keeps a lot of garbage off the air by letting them know what I don't watch. I feel this is information that really can't hurt me. I don't see them querying my TV to see what I was watching on the evening my mother in law was suspiciously murdered or anything.
How many times do we need to repeat this story?
1) X is put into person's home/pocket.
2) X asks for your email address and phone number then starts to track every movement and button press.
3) People act all surprised!
Film at 11.
No sig today...
I've paid to have it repaired three times in the last decade rather than willingly bug my own home with anything on the market now.
your cable box reports all kinds of info as well about what you are viewing.
Youâ(TM)d have to be an idiot to buy a smart tv, and even if itâ(TM)s the only thing in the store, to actually connect it to the net is insane. Buy a rocky ir amazon streaming device and unplug it when not in use. Works like a charm with my Apple TV and TiVo box.
Bring media and more trusted networked devices to your display.
Never allow your TV to report back your media use habits.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Thankfully I use APK's Hosts File Engine For Smart TVs, so there no chance of tracking me.
OMG, cover the TV in tinfoil
How many times do we need to repeat this story?
One more time as always.
Smart TVs tracking you and invading your privacy!
That's scandalous... that's why I only use an Amazon Firestick and control it with my Amazon Alexa. This way I can't be tracked. Nothing I do will be uploaded!
I'll make a post to Facebook recommending all my followers there to do the same.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
" on internet-connected TVs "
Disconnect said device from the Internet. Problem solved via a simple solution.
or
Allow the connection, identify telemetry addresses and block those at the router. Problem solved via slightly more complex solution.
The former is easier than the latter.
This really applies to EVERYTHING you connect to the Internet / Network. Assume it's hostile or a potentially leaky device and treat it as such.
" Trust, but verify " as the saying goes.
If it's popping open a microphone and listening to me do the nasty, I'll be concerned.
If it's recording that I am watching Sean Bean not die horribly on the field of Waterloo: Fuck yes, I am all for this.
So that explains the ads I see after having left our house in the care of a house sitter for two weeks. Man, I knew that last guy was a freak.
I have a retarded tv
your cable box reports all kinds of info as well about what you are viewing.
Yeah, but I make sure I'm always watching stuff I don't like. So the joke's on them.
your cable box reports all kinds of info as well about what you are viewing.
I cut the cord years ago and never missed it.
Ya know, most cable and other subscription services of any kind pretty much isn't worth it. They lock you into these one sided contracts and then gouge you.
None of them are worth it.
And it baffles me when I mention this to people who bitch about their cable and service that they "can't do without their sports".
Jesus Christ, get off your fat ass and join a league. For the price of one month's cable bill, I got a great tennis racket. League membership is $30 a season and I get to meet new people. It's even cheaper if you're a soccer, softball or tag football player.
what do you have an 22G cap on your LTE cell link?
Yet another "smart device" who's real purpose it to monitor and monetize the masses. "Smart Devices" are not for consumers - their for corporations.
Everything is a protocol.
Revese engineer that protocol and send them a duff payload.
I think I would send them that I watch TV 24 hours a day 7 days a week and change chanels randomly every 30 seconds. A Rasberry Pi could simulate that, while playing back the gospel channel so that speech recognition accurately detects the kind of church going person I am not.
Improvements to be added are muting all know ads when they appear, or a very high chance of a channel change if an ad is presented and a bias towards PBS.
As these apps have not made it, I presume they are buying out and shutting down
adblockers and howto filter faqs as they pop up. magic words like 'Buy, special offer, new car, sale' would also trigger a channel change.
Who actually uses the "Smart" functions on a TV? They've always kind of sucked in my opinion that goes triple by the time the TV is 5+ years old.
Can't track you unless you are stupid enough to plug in an Ethernet cable or put in your wifi password.
What drubs my ding is when they have an "Enable" button along with a "Not Now" button and no way to say "F**k off forever" so every time you turn on the device it begs to be enabled each time.
At that point I usually just undo the Internet connection on my "smart" tv or "smart" receiver and if the messages don't stop, I take it back as broken.
That's appalling! I just found out a provider can track what you stream from them too!
I still have this feeling like all this data valuation is a bubble, it is hard enough to glean useful trends out of rigorously collected scientific data. How much does Charmin pay Samsung to find out that the basement TV primarily streams PJ Mask and use that info to try to influence whether I buy the store-brand generic at Kroger vs Sam's Club? My understanding is that the market for banner ads has mostly collapsed as a way to make money, what'll be the next fad after tracking metrics crashes?
I'm NEVER buying another TV, and that decision was made years ago. People who buy into this crap deserve everything they get.
I have two smart TVs, so-called. they are not connected to the Internet. doing so exposes them to worms, viruses, and malware that the makers do not correct via updates. it also exposes "partner content" to my life. I get my content from $30 Roku boxes that are as replaceable as fuses if they get punked. I'm still smarter than my TVs.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
You were a fool to buy these so-called 'smart' devices in the first place, and you're even more fools now for keeping them -- or at least for continuing to allow them access to the Internet. You claim you don't care about your own privacy, but in reality you at some point will, and in the meantime you're being inconsiderate of everyone else by encouraging these shitty companies to use every dirty trick they can to pry into everyone else's lives, too. Repent!
Watch World War II documentaries and you are a neo-Nazi. Watch Wentworth (Prisoner Cell Block H) and you were a closet lesbian. God help you if you watched both.
Let me guess, you'd be officially outed as *being* Ilsa, the Werewolf Woman of the SS ?
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Not being tracked? Really?
He explicitly said that Nothing he does will be uploaded !"
He never mentioned whether this uploading won't happen because there's no tracking happening at all,
or whether this uploading won't happen because these companies already track you to the bone on the cloud and thus there's no extra tracking information that needs to be uploaded.
--
The Firestick is an almost dumb device that displays remotely served content. It doesn't track much locally and doesn't upload much... because the Amazon Streaming server already tracks and knows everything about you.
Amazon Alexa runs entirely on the cloud. The Amazon Echo device, is only a glorified internet streaming microphone+speaker combo. Beside recognizing a keyword ("Alexa !") it doesn't do much and is certainly unable to do tracking on its own ... because it's the giant AI behind Alexa on Amazon's cloud that knows everything about you up to your most secret desire.
Facebook on your computer is just basically HTML, just content. (I'm over simplifying)
All the horrible stuff that fills Mark Zuckerberg's pocket with cash happen on their servers. Be it the creepy stuff like face recognition image processing that they run on each single photo of you, even if you don't have a profile. Or the massive online behaviour monitoring : that "like" button might be a simple static image, but knowing *for which webpage* the FB servers were asked to serve it is the most interesting breadcrumbs path ever.
---
in other words : Woosh
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Got it out of the box, read what it did, went back in the box.
I expect TVs and appliances will soon have LTE cellular modems so they can collect consumer info without the need WiFi permissions. It will be close to impossible to turn them off.
Every upgrade the TV gets this fucking thing tries to get you to agree to it by using several dialogues (if you keep choosing to tell it to fuck off) and with clever wording and button placements.
This shit should be illegal and companies should be fined. Starting with Sony and/or Samba TV.
We are talking about a Samba privacy issue, right?
This should come as no surprise; we can assume that every internet connected device spies on you.
On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.