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Privacy Television

Smart TVs Are Invading Privacy and Should Be Investigated, Senators Say (arstechnica.com) 126

Posted by msmash from the worth-looking-into dept.
Earlier this month, The New York Times reported that a number of smart TV makers include services from companies that track a range of viewer information about their customers. Now, two Democratic US senators are asking the Federal Trade Commission to investigate privacy problems related to Internet-connected televisions. From a report: "Many Internet-connected smart TVs are equipped with sophisticated technologies that can track the content users are watching and then use that information to tailor and deliver targeted advertisements to consumers," Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) wrote in a letter yesterday to FTC Chairman Joseph Simons. "Regrettably, smart TV users may not be aware of the extent to which their televisions are collecting sensitive information about their viewing habits." The letter asked the FTC to "launch an investigation into the privacy policies and practices of smart TV manufacturers." When contacted by Ars, an FTC spokesperson confirmed that the agency received the letter from Markey and Blumenthal, but the FTC offered no further comment.
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Smart TVs Are Invading Privacy and Should Be Investigated, Senators Say More

Smart TVs Are Invading Privacy and Should Be Investigated, Senators Say

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  • Sanators are invading privacy and should be watching TV instead, Investigators say.

  • tracking you for ads (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 13, 2018 @03:30PM (#56942968)

    Senators seem to think on your tv problem on your computer no problem. WTF?

    • Do they know that their phones do the same and much, much more?

    • "tracking you for ads" makes a claim beyond your knowledge and risks minimizing the loss of one's privacy. Tracking users (data collection in general) is capable of being used for multiple purposes including purposes we don't yet recognize. We also aren't privy to how the collected data is being used now. We only know what organizations claim to use the data for (and that's all the Senate would know if they had a hearing, which means their hearings are nearly useless because they amount to little more than

  • Say what you will about this, but it's a positive step. It's nice to see US politicos finally acknowledging personal privacy and freedom from intrusive tech as rights. The EU has thought about these kinds of issues for decades, whereas the prevailing attitude in the US is head-in-the-sand. aka "If you're not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to hide."

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Nutria ( 679911 )

      Are these the same Democrat Senators spreading FUD about Trump's FCC allegedly requiring people to pay $225 to file complaints?

    • Funny, I saw smart TVs in the EU. Phones, cars with connected navi, cameras everywhere etc etc.

      Global market, same models.

      'Thought about'...right, real real helpful.

      What are they up too now? 14 eyes? FYI everybodies governments have been spying on each other citizens since WWII. Formalized after the war, started as 3 eyes. America, the UK and Australia agreed to spy on each others citizens, 'end running' all constitutional privacy protections in all 'cuntries' involved.

      Learn to maintain your privac

      • How many of these things do you actually do out of curiousity?

        • I could be poisoning the well, right now.

          I'm the same guy who flys RC model predator drones near groups of paranoids. (Occutards, gun shows, commies, right wing nuts, greenies. I'm an equal opportunity paranoia feeder. Truth: For the last 2 years the left has been so unhinged, it would be a crime to not further incite and provoke them. The tea party was fun in it's day.)

  • Use Other Devices (Score:5, Informative)

    by Luthair ( 847766 ) on Friday July 13, 2018 @03:36PM (#56943014)

    There are plenty of inexpensive devices one can use for streaming, there is no reason to allow your smart TV to connect to the internet.

    The real issue is that manufacturers are hiding their bad behaviour in vague EULA language (or just not disclosing it, e.g. Vizio), if they had to be upfront and disclose "We are going to track what you watch and sell this information to third parties" there would big significant consumer pushback.

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 )

      there is no reason to allow your smart TV to connect to the internet.

      Uhhh, Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, YouTube, etc. There are plenty of reasons.

      I should not have to watch movies on my cellphone just to avoid tracking.

      • There are plenty of inexpensive devices one can use for streaming, there is no reason to allow your smart TV to connect to the internet.

        You missed half the sentence and he's right. You shouldn't connect your TV to the internet and instead use a Kodi media center or something like that that won't track your activity.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Sloppy ( 14984 )

      There are plenty of inexpensive devices one can use for streaming, there is no reason to allow your smart TV to connect to the internet.

      How do you know this inexpensive device isn't doing the same exact thing? Its manufacturer can hife behind a EULA too, can't it?

      Monitors that have integrated computers are not the problem. The problem is that we're running proprietary software on them!

      In the rest of your life, you already learned that you want your computer working to maximize your interests instead of some

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Luthair ( 847766 )

        How do you know this inexpensive device isn't doing the same exact thing? Its manufacturer can hife behind a EULA too, can't it?

        They may, but they also can't get the full picture unless the only thing you do is stream through the device. Further, barring Roku the other devices are also tied to content providers who already know what you're watching.

      • I can totally see why this issue needs a constitutional amendment. I, like all US citizens, far prefer ads that do not pertain to me. Nothing upsets me more than seeing an advertisement for something I might actually want.
    • The reason why Smart TV Makers want to spy on you is to sell ads. They are collecting all the info they can get, and selling it to third party companies that try to figure out what kind of stuff they can advertise to you that you will buy. Being able to collect demographic info is very valuable, as before this happened, the only data they had was stuff like Nielsen ratings and surveys. The more they know about their customers, the more they can sell targeted advertising and the more they make from it.

      The

  • ... and being lazy ...

    Any reason not to just buy a big monitor and use it for my "TV"?

    (When the old dumb TV dies)

    • Other than the higher price for existing monitors ($900 for a 38" monitor vs $200 for 40" TV) and the lack of monitors above 49"?

      • Other than the higher price for existing monitors ($900 for a 38" monitor vs $200 for 40" TV) and the lack of monitors above 49"?

        The existing TV is ... 25 in? (I actually measured diagonally with a tape measure) and more than big enough for our modest living room.

        So ... lack of giant screens not a factor for me.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Desler ( 1608317 )

      Yeah a TV is much cheaper. Right now at Best Buy you can buy 55" 4k TVs for less than $400. Please show me a 55" 4K monitor that is even in the same price range.

    • Cheap dumb 4K TVs are _much_ cheaper and use the same IPS panels.

      They are good enough. Wally world. You might go laps to get a good one. Quality control is crap.

      You can't find a name brand dumb 4K TV. Don't waste your time looking. The cheap ones appear identical except for badging. Wait for sales, they loss lead with these all the time. Get there early, so they'll have more in stock if you get a crap one.

    • I looked into this. Modern TVs are basically Monitors except they are better set up for the use case of using them without a computer always plugged into them. They have more inputs, they have outputs for sound that comes over from the HDMI feeds, and they have easier to use on screen menus and come with a remote to use them.

      • I looked into this. Modern TVs are basically Monitors except they are better set up for the use case of using them without a computer always plugged into them. They have more inputs, they have outputs for sound that comes over from the HDMI feeds, and they have easier to use on screen menus and come with a remote to use them.

        Reasonable points in favor.

    • Vice versa. I almost never watch TV, but this big screen makes a great monitor for things like Slashdot in my living room.
      I might get an afternoon of sports watched a year, or it used to be if someone was assassinated, but the inet is a better source now anyway.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by antdude ( 79039 )

      Because people want everything inside their TV to do the work without deal with many external boxes, cables, configurations, etc.? :(

  • They simply will say "we won't".
    That's the business, baby!

  • This is odd. (Score:5, Funny)

    by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) on Friday July 13, 2018 @03:47PM (#56943108)

    I saw something about this while watching C-SPAN on my Smart TV and I heard the Senators say, "Smart TVs are wonderful and everyone should own one and watch it every day." Sure, their mouths and words lined up like on a old b&w Godzilla movie dubbed into English, but what's weird about that? I'll watch my Smart TV some more and get back to you with any updates ...

  • Before "smart" TVs were even popular, experts warned everyone all about this. I mean, what's next, are they going to say that the voice assistants are a privacy threat? Seriously, everything that communicates with the manufacturer ("phones home") is a threat to your privacy and security and yes, should be investigated!

    • Next you are going to tell me that my car is phoning home about all my driving data.

      Why yes, I did sign up for the Progressive thingy that gives me a discount. What does that have anything to do with anything?

      • If you're lucky enough to live in a city with a legal drag, go there for street car day, leave the progressive dongle plugged in.

  • In Soviet America... (Score:3)

    by forkfail ( 228161 ) on Friday July 13, 2018 @04:25PM (#56943392)

    ... TV watch you!

  • Like this isn't happening all over the goddam motherfucking Internet or stuff.

  • This (Score:2)

    by sjames ( 1099 )

    This is why I have a "dumb" TV. Accepts HDMI, composite, and RF inputs only. No network connection is needed or wanted.

    That's what the Raspberry Pi is for.

  • I actually haven't thought about smart tvs tracking your viewing and phoning the info home. Not surprised at all, and don't really care seeing as how I don't have one, but never considered it.

  • To have a normal TV.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      you actually are. "smart" televisions are partially subsidized by the bundled crap, affiliate deals with them, and the spying, with less profits coming from the hardware itself.

    • Name brands don't want you. You have to goto the lowest, cheapest, chineseist stores and buy the 'Sceptre' or equivalent.

      But good news, wait for sale and ridiculously cheap, and not too bad so long as you get a good one. Be ready to go back, but think twice if it's just a pixel defect or two, next one could be worse. The quality control is terrible, but there are good ones.

      • I suspect 10 years from now dumb TVs won't be generally available, and the industry will have fully transitioned to bundling the features of a set-top box into the TV itself.

        • To prevent that, vote with your dollars and get one of the cheap ones today.

          The name brands have made me a non-customer by ignoring my market segment.

          • But my dumb TV already does everything I need. And it isn't broken and isn't obsolete. It will probably last 10 years.

            Now we're seeing the advantages of profit for smart TVs that break frequently, become obsolete as firmware updates cease, or are replaced when their services stop working.

            • I'm saying get a cheap dumb 4k for your next set.

              Nothing lasts 10 years anymore. The LEDs back lights are wired in series, like cheap christmas tree lights.

              • My Mitsubishi 55" 1080i held up for 14 years.

                Backlights are easy to replace. I wonder if anyone is doing repair shops for that. I often swap them out and do color calibration at work and it's not hard at all.

                • LED backlights are significantly harder to swap out than fluorescent ones were. You have to disassemble the set to get to them. If you have to pay retail tech rates, you might as well buy a new one.

                  • I've never done it for CCFL before. All the panels at my work are LED based. and like I said, it's not hard in my experience to replace them.

                    I can see that OEMs wouldn't want repairs going on. And if there is no ability for a shop to calibrate color, then it is a waste of time to replace a backlight.

                    • Not very hard, just time consuming and prone to leaving dust and other shit in between the layers. The bigger the screen, the trickier the panels are to work with.

                    • I've not seen issues with dust before. Especially for edge lights. But I work in a lab with dust control procedures (sticky mats and air filters)

  • Heaven forbid someone might be making money, through some devious and illegal means, and Congress is not in on it yet? These days, without a significant payoff to the right reelection campaign this kind of behavior will never be allowed. What were they thinking? /s
  • ...DUH! I'd never buy a "Smart" TV.
  • android smartphones and tablets, microsoft windows, smart speakers, the only way to keep 21st century electronics from spying on you is to smash them all with a hammer, and live without them, and even then you're not safe from the big brother Orwellian world we allowed to sprout up

  • (Not saying I don't dislike / hate privacy invasions, etc or data on me being sold, just something I've been wondering)

    I'll see these thing say "(service) sells data for targeted ads," and people get super pissed. Aside from the invasion of privacy... Is anyone pissed about it being targeted ads? Or is it just literally the privacy issue?

  • Welcome to the 21st century, senators. In case you hadn't heard, privacy is a quaint concept from the past. These TVs, which have now been around for years, are small potatoes compared to the small "digital assistant" spy devices people are voluntarily putting in their houses. Hey, Alexa! Tell Amazon that I thought about buying a pair of boots today! Hey Google! Call the FBI and tell them I said the word "bomb" three times!

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