How smart TVs in millions of U.S. homes track more than what’s on tonight

“The growing concern over online data and user privacy has been focused on tech giants like Facebook and devices like smartphones,” Sapna Maheshwari reports for The New York Times. “But people’s data is also increasingly being vacuumed right out of their living rooms via their televisions, sometimes without their knowledge.”

“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,” Maheshwari reports. “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 has struck deals with roughly a dozen TV brands — including Sony, Sharp, TCL and Philips — to place its software on certain sets,” Maheshwari reports. “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.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: More privacy-trampling excrement.

SEE ALSO:
Privacy on Facebook and Google is ‘like holding a gun to your head’ – July 3, 2018
Cambridge Analytica shuts down after Facebook user-data scandal – May 2, 2018
Beleaguered Facebook heading down a troubled path – April 18, 2018
I was one of the very first people on Facebook. I shouldn’t have trusted Mark Zuckerberg – April 17, 2018
Facebook AI predicts your future and sells this info to advertisers – April 16, 2018
Why there shouldn’t be a ‘next Facebook’ – April 13, 2018
How Facebook lets brands and politicians target users – April 11, 2018
Facebook’s Zuckerberg was ready to slam Apple if Congress asked him about Tim Cook’s privacy comments – April 11, 2018
Apple co-founder Woz quits Facebook – April 9, 2018
Mark Zuckerberg admits Facebook scans the contents of all private Messenger texts – April 4, 2018
Facebook to warn 87 million users that their data ‘may have been improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica’ – April 4, 2018
Mark Zuckerberg and the never-ending stench of Facebook – April 2, 2018
Apple may be the biggest winner from Facebook’s data scandal – April 2, 2018