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Smart TV is a great source of entertainment but now it can also become a threat to your privacy. Learn how to avoid ACR, voice assistant and data tracking and protect your TV privacy.
Today’s smart TVs are not just a means of entertainment, but have also become the most useful thing in our homes. People spend hours watching series, movies and games, but often do not realize that their TV can also record their interests, activities and surrounding sounds. Many big companies are adding microphones, voice assistants and tracking systems to their smart TVs, claiming that these features improve the viewing experience.
But these features can also collect information about your home environment and personal data. If the TV has voice commands or an always-on microphone, it may record background noise. These audio clips are often sent to the company’s servers to improve the voice recognition system.
Smart TVs also collect information like your viewing history, installed apps, IP address and location. This data is often shared with advertising and data analytics companies.
The biggest threat comes from ACR (Automatic Content Recognition). This technology scans every content playing on TV. Be it OTT platform, cable TV, YouTube or pen drive, ACR can find out what content you are watching and when and can also record the IP address and location of your TV. Recently Jammu and Kashmir Police has issued an alert on this issue.
Companies claim that user data is only used to provide better recommendations, but in reality this data is used to build your digital profile and for ad targeting. Often your smart TV data is combined with mobile and laptop usage patterns to create your complete digital identity.
What should be done?
- If you want to be conscious of your privacy, then change some settings immediately. First of all turn off voice control and voice assistant.
- Also turn off ACR and personalization features.
- If not necessary, do not always keep the TV connected to Wi-Fi and if possible, use a separate guest network.
- Covering the microphone or camera is also a safe option. Also, check privacy settings from time to time and keep updating the software.
