What does your TV do when you watch a movie?

What does your TV do when you’re watching a movie?

The answer is simple and short - it makes money.

Watching TV is a pleasant and harmless activity. But TVs are becoming increasingly intelligent. So-called Smart TVs connected to the internet via a router gain the ability to watch us. Smart TVs collect data from the device itself, but also from the operating system and applications, as well as all accessories connected to it, such as game consoles, phones, Google Chromecast, Apple TV, Amazon Fire Stick, and other gadgets.

Besides providing the pleasure of watching, the TV is an excellent data source for advertisers and data brokers who can observe us in real-time and monetize the collected data. They gather information about our behavior, interests, preferences, and demographic data. All this builds our profile, making it easier to create perfect advertisements.

Sound, image, television… these three elements serve to collect data.

Voice activation - microphones and software listen to instructions and can record conversations and other sounds within their range. The collected recordings are shared for analysis by appropriate teams and tools.

Cross-device tracking - data collected through the TV combined with smartphones, laptops, etc., is more valuable. This allows for better profiling by using history based on geolocation, web browsing activity, or social media information.

Cookies and tracking modules - pre-installed applications and browsers on TVs use cookie and pixel tracking technologies, just like websites, to track, recognize, and identify devices for user profiling.

Streaming - another way to transmit a large amount of personal data. Applications from well-known movie platform providers use data to check creditworthiness and can also collect information about devices, geolocation, browser type, email address, and payment information.

Based on this, they know if you are creditworthy, what your preferences are for watched channels, where you come from, and what devices are connected to the home network.

Automatic Content Recognition (ACR)

Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) is a feature that is often enabled by default. It uses analytical techniques to identify video and audio played on the TV, comparing them with a large database to identify what is being played. ACR works on everything played on the TV - DVDs, Blu-rays, CDs, games.

Viewing data and habits are shared with manufacturers and ultimately sold to advertisers to target ads to you. When the TV is connected to the home router, the data will also include your IP address and location.

ACR can be used for more detailed profiling. Data from facial recognition, sentiment analysis, speech-to-text analysis, and content analysis can be collected to create a detailed picture of an individual user.

ACR can analyze data for political views, ethnic affiliation, socio-economic status, and other factors that could be misused in the wrong hands.

Hackers

The browser on the TV provides great convenience and pleasure, but it is one of the targets for hackers. TVs do not have antivirus software or additional security settings. Cybercriminals can eavesdrop on browser traffic and compromise cookies that manage authentication in online services, such as social media accounts or online banking, and impersonate people.

How to protect yourself from our favorite spy?

We can turn everything off, cover it up, and seal it, but will that give us the pleasure of using the TV? So, we leave the Internet connection on, and our smart TV will collect data, and there’s nothing we can do about it. We have to accept it… Besides, we like it when the TV suggests interesting movies to us.

But… we can also turn off ACR in the settings, disable personalization, opt out of all advertising features, and cover or turn off cameras and microphones. This way, we can protect our privacy a little, although the system will still bombard us with ads… but they won’t be as personalized.

Regardless, make sure your home router is well protected, all updates are installed, strong passwords are set, and you have a separate internet band for guests. All smart devices should have their default passwords changed and be logged into the guest network, not the one you use for banking transactions or reading emails. It’s much safer.

2024

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