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left-of-center2012

(34,195 posts)
Sat Aug 11, 2018, 11:34 AM Aug 2018

How 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 don’t just track the shows you stream on their built-in apps: they can recognize any show you’re watching, any game you’re 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 you’d prefer not to share everything you watch with TV manufacturers, you can turn this feature off.

First, if you don’t 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 TV’s settings. Without internet access, the TV can’t send information to anyone, meaning your data stays at home. However, it also means your TV’s built-in apps won’t 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 don’t stream at all).

If that isn’t 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 here’s where to look on the most popular brands.

full story
https://tinyurl.com/y9a3a6t8

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How to Stop Your Smart TV From Tracking What You Watch (Original Post) left-of-center2012 Aug 2018 OP
Yet another thing that makes me quite happy PoindexterOglethorpe Aug 2018 #1
my smart TV is now a dumb monitor. lapfog_1 Aug 2018 #2
Not a problem for us TexasProgresive Aug 2018 #3
I suspected it was watching me Kilgore Aug 2018 #4
Or is it your microwave? left-of-center2012 Aug 2018 #5
No, its the TV, the toaster told me so Kilgore Aug 2018 #6
My toaster never lied to me left-of-center2012 Aug 2018 #7
Everyone knows that toasters are trustworthy Kilgore Aug 2018 #8

lapfog_1

(29,166 posts)
2. my smart TV is now a dumb monitor.
Sat Aug 11, 2018, 11:51 AM
Aug 2018

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)
3. Not a problem for us
Sat Aug 11, 2018, 12:03 PM
Aug 2018

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.

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