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Samsung, LG, Vizio smart TVs are recording/sharing data about everything you watch

OutHouse

OutHouse

Lifer
fuck the EULA's there should be laws making this crap illegal.

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/...erything-you-watch/index.htm?EXTKEY=NW0S01503

A few weeks ago, controversy erupted over smart TVs after a series of reports, including one from Consumer Reports, revealed that televisions made by Samsung and others could be recording their owners' private conversations. Implanting microphones inside TV remote controls raises the possibility of some pretty serious privacy violations, but in practice, it seems that Samsung’s TVs are simply processing voice commands on remote servers. That's similar to the way Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Echo, and many other voice-controlled products work. However, the same TVs are collecting and sharing another kind of data on a massive scale—and in this case the privacy intrusion is very concrete.

TVs are sending data to third parties on everything you watch, whether it's a TV broadcast, a streaming movie, a YouTube video, or a DVD from your private collection. And it’s not just Samsung—LG and Vizio are also harvesting data about their customers’ viewing habits. All these manufacturers have been embedding the functionality into many of their smart TVs, in some cases since 2012.
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I don't any of these things, but I always assumed that was part of the deal with buying one.

KT

Edit: also, I don't care.
 
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Since when is there such a thing as privacy anymore? Most of these people would sell out their closest friends and relatives if it meant they could get free cable because "they aren't doing anything wrong".

We're all just one big market data to be collected and sold. Welcome to Americorp.

Of course, they aren't sending that data if you don't have them hooked to your internet 😛
 
Just don't connect it to the internet.😉
Seriously though most people with smart TV probably have a mobile phone which is sadly data mining the hell out of the world..

I don't like this stuff at all but I'm not surprised..
 
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My TV has a camera in it too!
Probably video out there of me fapping to Jessica Parker Kennedy.

not really
 
Why do we assume that the data is not anonymized? I'm sure it's useful for things like Nielsen ratings, but my expectation of them is to scrub identifiable information.
 
Ichinisan said:
Why do we assume that the data is not anonymized? I'm sure it's useful for things like Nielsen ratings, but my expectation of them is to scrub identifiable information.
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Why would you assume they do? What possible motivation could they have for guarding the privacy of users? I can think of numerous reasons why they wouldn't. Aside from that, "anonymized" data isn't very anonymous...

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/...a-researchers-identify-anonymous-people/?_r=0
 
My TVs are "dumb", but I'll make an effort not to buy Smart TVs and to avoid setting up Wifi. But the NSA probably has built in bugs anyways, so meh, as long as I can't be convicted using the shit -- Guantanamo is nice though, I hear.
 
How's the TV know what's being played through an HDMI source? Or is this only for integrated content?
 
jlee said:
How's the TV know what's being played through an HDMI source? Or is this only for integrated content?
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I would assume it's just integrated stuff like using the built-in YouTube or Netflix client. Although, they can probably also get the information on what type of device is currently attached to a HDMI port. While they may not be able to tell exactly what you're doing, they might be able to tell that you were playing your Xbox for a few hours. 😛
 
Aikouka said:
I would assume it's just integrated stuff like using the built-in YouTube or Netflix client. Although, they can probably also get the information on what type of device is currently attached to a HDMI port. While they may not be able to tell exactly what you're doing, they might be able to tell that you were playing your Xbox for a few hours. 😛
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They can also "hear". It wouldn't be a difficult task to "manually" determine what users are doing. That's how Youtube content id works.
 
lxskllr said:
They can also "hear". It wouldn't be a difficult task to "manually" determine what users are doing. That's how Youtube content id works.
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I'm not sure if most of those smart TVs have the processing power for that... unless they send the data offsite to process.
 
Aikouka said:
I'm not sure if most of those smart TVs have the processing power for that... unless they send the data offsite to process.
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Probably not in-house. What /I/ would do if designing a spy system, is wait until things stabilize, then send a few snippets of sound to a server for processing every few minutes or so. Each transmission could be less than a mb, so it wouldn't be hammering the network.
 
Things will get really scary once they are able to efficiently process the massive amounts of data they collect on us on a daily basis. A company/government will be able to have a super accurate profile of who you are and how you think. They will probably know some people better than their best friend or spouse.
 
We have a free market. If consumers don't want to be tracked then they won't buy Samsung, LG, or Vizio TVs. Problem solved.
 
1984-LG-84-inch.jpg


tv-tells.jpg
 
Ichinisan said:
Why do we assume that the data is not anonymized? I'm sure it's useful for things like Nielsen ratings, but my expectation of them is to scrub identifiable information.
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Why would you assume it is?
Ichinisan said:
I'm trying to understand where the outrage is coming from. I think it's the assumption that the shared data is not anonymous.
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1, it's my data, eff them. 2 everyone sells your personal data.

Posted it before, Equifax has a search feature that combines everything they can mine about everyone and I can get it because I'm a member.

Order a pizza. You give your name, address, phone #. The pizza company sells it to Equifax. 🙂 So does everyone else you do business with. Equifax combines it with everything else they have and can cross it reference about you.

For my business, it's great. You can't skip and me not find you unless you don't have a phone/cable/etc...🙂
 
balloonshark said:
Things will get really scary once they are able to efficiently process the massive amounts of data they collect on us on a daily basis. A company/government will be able to have a super accurate profile of who you are and how you think. They will probably know some people better than their best friend or spouse.
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Welcome to your Kroger member card.
 
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