All of your connected electronic devices are spying on you in one way or another, and that includes your smart TV. It knows what you’re watching, how much time you spend watching, and all the titles you like to skip over and ignore. And with all that information, it has a pretty good idea of who you are in terms of age, race, religion, and beliefs.
There is absolutely no reason your smart TV, and all those associated with it, need to know any of this information. Don’t believe the lies that say it will help with personalized recommendations; that’s what social media is for. Your TV shouldn’t be tracking you, so here’s how to stop it.
Immediately turn off automatic content recognition
ACR tracks viewing habits and builds a profile
Perhaps the biggest spying culprit is something called Automatic Content Recognition, or ACR. It’s a process by which your TV can identify the title on the screen through sound cues and by taking a screenshot of your TV. ACR mines a huge database worth of titles and will identify what you have on the screen. And when there is enough of a collection of what you’ve seen, it can make educated guesses about exactly who you are.
Every TV will make it difficult to turn off tracking settings. They are hidden far down in your TV settings and each feature uses vague phrasing to confuse you; most TVs use different terminology for all the same features.
Your viewing habits say a lot about your political beliefs, personal interests, and social and economic background. That information all helps paint a picture of who you are and what you might want to buy, and that’s why TV partners acquire this information so they can sell you products and services you might like.
ACR, like most privacy and tracking settings, will be buried deep within your TV’s settings, mainly because your TV manufacturer doesn’t want you to turn it off. Look for something called Viewing Information Services, Live Plus, or Use Info. Toggle it off.
Turn off your microphone and camera
Don’t let your TV listen and watch you
Another way your TV learns too much about you is through voice tracking. While manufacturers promote voice recognition as a convenient way to find titles, faster than using a remote to search, there are risks associated with your voice being recorded. Every time you use any voice service, companies will use that interaction to improve the service.
In order to use voice services, you have to opt in to a lot of agreements that aren’t going to work in your favor. There is a base of information required for entry, and once you start talking to your TV about what you’re interested in, it’s going to quickly and easily build a profile on you. There are also risks associated with your voice being recorded and copied, and of course, your TV listening in when you don’t want it to.
Similarly, if your TV has a camera, don’t use it. And cover it up. You also don’t need to use gestures to command your TV or enable motion sensors; they do more harm than good.
Remove interest-based advertising or ad tracking
You don’t need personalized recommendations
Your TV wants to push recommendations on you, and it will try and convince you that it needs to track your viewing habits in order to do that successfully. There are a couple issues with this. Firstly, your TV isn’t the same as a streaming service; Netflix, Disney+, and others will happily keep tabs on what you watch and suggest to you plenty of titles. Your TV doesn’t need to do that, too.
Secondly, your TV isn’t necessarily going to be good at this or have your best interests in mind. It’s still going to push the titles it wants to push. A Fire TV from Amazon, for example, isn’t all of a sudden going to stop pushing Prime Video titles just because you never watch any.
Lastly, and this is less about privacy than execution, but there isn’t really a perfect OS that’s worth scrolling through to find titles you might want to watch. With so many services and apps, there’s just too much available for an operating system to succinctly put everything together; some systems don’t even communicate directly with certain apps. Turn off the tracking, and just go directly to your app of choice.
Limit app usage and device communication
Don’t give away your viewing habits
Some TVs will keep track of which apps you use and whether you opt for the TV’s live, free channels. Nothing is ever free, and these stations that are heavily promoted by the manufacturer are another means for companies to push titles and track data. Make sure you toggle off any setting that tracks which apps or live TV features you use.
Similarly, a connected device may be tracked and communicated with. Some TVs will identify devices such as smartphones or tablets that may be hooked up to your TV. Some may even be able to send ads to these devices as well. Make sure your TV can’t easily access everything on your network.
Create a new email and network
Hide away your identity and minimize threats
These suggestions aren’t so much changes to settings as much as alterations to the way you use your TV. Every smart operating system and TV manufacturer requires a login to create a profile. It’s advised to use an email address that is exclusively for such entertainment purposes; don’t use a main email address that has your full name within it. That’s too easily giving away information.
You might also want to consider creating a separate Wi-Fi network for your TV to exist in isolation. This will prevent it from talking to your other devices and potentially transmitting or receiving threats or malware. If you want to be extra cautious, make sure you’re completely turning off your TV when it’s not in use for extended periods of time instead of simply putting it into standby mode. You may even want to unplug it from a power source when you’re not watching it for days on end.
