Your smart TV is a “privacy nightmare”, a new report claims, suggesting that the streaming industry has created a sinister surveillance system that’s undermining our privacy and our consumer protection too. That’s according to a damning 48-page report by the Center For Digital Democracy (CDD), which has been passed to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
According to the report, the price of streaming isn’t just in its ever-increasing subscription fees. It’s in its “connected television media and marketing system with unprecendented capabilities for surveillance and manipulation.” And thanks to AI, it’s about to get even worse.
What’s so sinister about streaming?
You can read the full PDF report here, but here are some of the key points. What the report calls “connected TV” is now the dominant way for US consumers to watch TV, and it says that the manufacturers and streamers have collectively turned connected TVs into “a sophisticated monitoring, tracking and targeting device.”
In the report’s introduction it uses Tubi as an example. “Tubi’s fundamental business model is based on harvesting rich and detailed information from its viewers” using advertising tech, and that tech can then be used to change what content is recommended to you and even what products are featured in your shows. And Tubi is far from alone in this: the report goes into a lot of detail about technologies it says are used by Disney+, Amazon, Netflix and many more of the best streaming services.
The CDD report says that the streaming industry “has deliberately incorporated many of the data-surveillance marketing practices that have long undermined privacy and consumer protection in the ‘older’ world of social media, search engines, mobile phones and video services… millions of Americans are being forced to accept unfair terms in order to access video programming, which threatens their privacy and may also narrow what information they access – including the quality of the content itself.”
The report paints a bleak picture, and the CDD wants the US Government to take action. In particular it wants:
- Robust privacy protection
- Digital marketing safeguards covering politics, health and children
- Regulation of anti-competitive and monopolistic behaviors
The CDD has written to the FTC, FCC, the California attorney general, and the CPPA demanding an investigation into the US connected TV industry. If you’re feeling cynical, the size of the companies involved and the size of their political donations may make such an investigation unlikely – and the result of the Presidential election may make the likelihood of an investigation is even slimmer. However, it’s clear that to have such a massive and influential industry effectively self-regulating may not be the best way to protect our privacy or save us from corporate misbehavior. You need only look at the many lawsuits facing the likes of Google to see that.
Should this put you off buying the best TVs today, which are all smart and connected? Well, you don’t have a ton of options – unless you want to use a basic PC monitor to watch TV, everything is setup for the new world of data collection. You could switch to one of the best projectors and best 4K Blu-ray players to keep things more offline, though they won’t be for everyone due to their size – and you can’t get them for the same cheap price as today’s TVs.
As is often the case, we don’t have quite the range of choice in the market that you might think, considering just how many TVs are available.