Reportedly, a new breed of smart TV is actually spying on us!
One of the most popular brands can reportedly track everything you watch and then report them to advertisers, ProPublica reported.
For millions of viewers, the set's “Smart Interactivity” is preprogrammed as a default setting right from the factory.
This Smart Interactivity records a person’s view habits, including what they watched, the time and the channel they were tuned to and possibly what they recorded for later binge watching.
The viewing patterns are linked to the consumer's IP address, which then identifies other devices like tablets and phones present in the home environment.
If users are aware of the feature, they can make the very human decision to simply turn it off.
In a statement the TV manufacturer said “Non-personal identifiable information may be shared with select partners… to permit these companies to make, for example, better-informed decisions regarding content production, programming and advertising.”
The Irvine, CA. based manufacturer also makes tablets, laptops and mobile phones.
It is unknown if they will be employing their Smart Interactivity default setting on those devices in the future as well.