There was another thread with a paywalled article, but here’s the actual study that found that smart TVs use “automatic content recognition” to build an ad profile for you based on what’s on your screen… including HDMI content streamed from a laptop, game console, etc. Yikes.

At a high level, ACR works by periodically capturing the content displayed on a TV’s screen and matching it against a content library to detect the content being viewed on the TV. It is essentially a Shazam-like technology for audio/video content on the smart TV [38]. ACR is implemented by all major smart TV manufacturers, including Samsung [9] and LG [55 ].

Our findings indicate that (1) ACR operates even when it is used as a “dumb” display via HDMI; (2) opt-out mecha- nisms stop ACR traffic; (3) ACR works differently in the UK as com- pared to the US.

So it seems like you’re opted-in by default, but you can stop ACR traffic by simply configuring six different options on Samsung, or eleven different options on LG.

Oh, and this doesn’t seem to happen when you’re using native streaming apps like Netflix or Disney+, because hey, they wouldn’t want to infringe on those companies’ rights by spying on them, right?

  • Swordgeek@lemmy.ca
    20·
    1 month ago

    Time for a lawsuit.

    Since the presence of a TV in your house is a commercial benefit for the companies who make them, AND you do not actually have control over them, it is clear that the ‘sales contract’ was fraudulent and part of a bad-faith act on the manufacturers’ part.

    So I say a class-action lawsuit is in order: Each person who bought (say) an LG TV gets back 100% of their purchase price, plus some reimbursement for being spied on - probably a per-month amount. Then LG has to pay a punitive fee on top of their payouts to customers.

    I know that everyone is screaming “that will never work!” and “They’ll go bankrupt!” I don’t care - SOMETHING has to change to remind these evil fuckers that they need our business, or the abuse will just ramp up.

    Bankrupt them all. Tear down the entire industry. Tear down the entire economy and start again from scratch if that’s what it takes.

    If they can’t be reined in legally, then it will happen illegally - and probably violently.