TV Chat
Related: About this forumHow to Stop Your Smart TV From Tracking What You Watch
Your smart TV is probably tracking everything that appears on the screen. While ad tracking is par for the course on the internet in 2018, smart TVs are particularly interesting. They dont just track the shows you stream on their built-in apps: they can recognize any show youre watching, any game youre playing, or any ad that appears on the screen from any device connected to the TV.
This technology called Automatic Content Recognition and usually provided by a company called Samba TV is simultaneously fascinating and creepy. It aims to provide more relevant ads and recommendations based on what you watch, which some may find useful but if youd prefer not to share everything you watch with TV manufacturers, you can turn this feature off.
First, if you dont use the smart features on your TV, you can block this tracking by simply disconnecting your TV from the internet. Either unplug the Ethernet cable or disconnect it from your Wi-Fi network in the TVs settings. Without internet access, the TV cant send information to anyone, meaning your data stays at home. However, it also means your TVs built-in apps wont be able to stream any movies or shows, so this solution works only if you get your streaming from a set-top box like the Apple TV (or dont stream at all).
If that isnt an option, you can keep streaming from your TV and turn automatic content recognition off. The instructions are a little different depending on what model TV you have, but heres where to look on the most popular brands.
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PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,746 posts)not to have a TV at all.
lapfog_1
(29,166 posts)connected to my PC... my PC runs Linux and the apps I use for watching streaming content do not (that I know of) report my viewing habits to anyone... I also have a "port monitor" that looks for any non-standard TCP/UDP ports that have opened without my permission (part of my firewall software).
Not perfect... but fairly safe... I use another system for reading email so that should I accidentally open something that is really a virus, hopefully the virus software on that system detects and kills it (I'm using malwarebytes now).
TexasProgresive
(12,148 posts)We live in the high speed high data wasteland of rural Texas- smart TV is not connected to the Satellite internet service because it would steal all of our data and I wouldn't be able to post this.