Is your Smart TV Acting Like a Big Brother and Tracking You?

You do the hard work all day and feel relaxed when you reach home and open your smart TV. You simply want to watch your favourite show or whatever you want to watch. Right? Here is something that nobody in India knows about. In simple words, you are watching TV and your TV is watching you. Doesn’t it sound a little weird?  But that’s true. 

The smart TV in your home is tracking you. Like whatever you watch on your TV, for how long you sit in front of that. It sends all the data to the companies who are located far from you to analyze your habits. For that, it didn’t ask for your permission. 

The Hidden Spy That Is Sitting in Your Living Room

In India, people are buying smart TVs very rapidly. Home doesn’t feel like home till then we didn’t buy a TV. Almost every home in India has a television. And, on a rough figure, half of them have a smart TV that is connected to the internet all the time. It sounds fascinating, but you have to pay the most important thing for that- Your Privacy. 

Most of the smart TVs are based on the technology named ACR (Automatic Content Recognition). Here is how ACR technology works. The TV takes a small snapshot of what you are watching. It also picks up the audio that is playing. After that, it determines specifically what you are watching. Whether you are on a streaming application or even on a cable channel. It does not matter at all. That’s how your TV is listening to you all the time. 

Are You Sure You Are Safe? 

It is a common belief that this problem has already been solved by many people. They go to Netflix or YouTube and use the privacy options they find there. They are safe after that. But experts say that even this will not help much.

The fact is that even the TV itself has its own tracking system. It can be used independently of any application on your screen. Even when you have disabled the data sharing on Netflix, your TV hardware may be gathering background data. Changing the settings of the apps does not help in preventing that.

This tracking is normally turned on by default. Nobody tells you. No great caution is needed when you install it. You simply sit in front of the TV, and the information begins to be shared. The TV will slowly make an image of your everyday routine. Like what you watch that makes you feel loved, when you generally sit down to watch TV, and what topics you are interested in watching. All this information is shared with the advertising companies, who can use this information to make advertisements for you.

Consider it as follows. Suppose a stranger should stand quietly before your window every night, and make a note of all that you do in the house. This is probably what your smart TV is doing – only in a digital form.

What You Can Do about it

Not all TV brands act similarly. Most companies state that they do not follow the viewers on their own. They depend on any permission system that platforms such as Google TV come with. But some popular brands have just remained silent. They have failed to communicate with customers in a clear manner. What type of data do they capture or collect, and what is the use of that data? 

India has a new law on privacy that is expected to help you. The Digital Personal Data Protection Act has now mandated companies, such as smart TV manufacturers, to be transparent about what data they are collecting. They also need permission before doing this. But the law is new. Before the companies are really called into account, it will take time.

Your smart TV is a wonderful thing. It entertains your whole family. But just like you lock your front door before going to bed, you should also lock down what your TV is allowed to share about you. The screen shows you the world. Make sure it is not showing the world too much about your life at your own home.