Your Smart TV Is Spying on You
There’s no way to tell exactly what smart TV manufacturers know about you. Data is collected about your usage, which includes basic things like which apps you use, the channels you watch, and what time you’re usually slumped in front of the TV.
But there are more insidious tracking habits you should be aware of. “Automated content recognition” (ACR) goes a step further and can analyze and report exactly what’s happening on your TV, regardless of source. Your TV knows when you’re playing video games on a console, watching a film on a separate Blu-ray player, or casting home movies to your TV from your phone.
Voice capture is another concern since most smart TVs come with assistants like Alexa or Google Assistant. The microphones that these features depend on may capture any sound or conversation in the same room as your TV. Thankfully, the vast majority of TVs don’t have cameras on them for video calling (not yet, anyway).