Your Smart TV Just Got Smarter: What AI Recommendations Really Know About You
1 min read
Summary
Every time you watch a show or browse channels on your smart TV, it is tracking and logging your activity to tailor what it presents to you.
Smart TVs use AI to capture screenshots of content played on the screen and send them to manufacturers and third parties to analyse to build a profile of the user in order to serve personalised adverts and recommendations.
They know more about you than you think, collecting your personal details, voice data, and technical and telemetry data.
This extensive data collection is not just for your convenience, but also for smart TV manufacturers to generate revenue beyond the initial hardware sale.
Selling your viewing data to advertisers and data brokers allows them to serve targeted ads based on your viewing habits and profile.
While targeted ads aren’t necessarily a bad thing, the downside is that it increases a person’s screen time, potentially affecting mental health and productivity, and narrowing the options for content viewed.
Recommendation systems can be switched off for those who value their privacy, but enjoy the convenience of tailored recommendations.
