IN BRIEF
·
The
Facts:
TVision Insights was
launched a few years ago, allowing companies to monitor TV watchers' viewing
habits. This means that they can watch you as you watch TV. The technology
records where your eyes are looking, facial expressions and more.
·
Reflect On:
What happened to privacy? How are these companies allowed to role
out such technologies without the consent of the masses?
Years
ago, Edward Snowden accomplished
one of the most significant intelligence leaks in U.S. history, confirming to
the world that the government really does spy on you. Two years later, Samsung
casually warned the public that their Smart TVs could record their
living room banter.
Now, even if you’re alone in a room, if that room contains a
laptop, computer, or Smart TV, it’s possible that someone out there is
listening to you, and even watching you. The worst part? You wouldn’t even
know.
A
technology called TVision Insights was launched
a few years ago, allowing companies to monitor TV watchers’ viewing habits.
This means that they can literally watch you as you watch TV, and the
technology even records data on where your eyes are looking, when you’re
distracted, and what emotions you’re conveying.
As you can see, not only can the companies watch you watch
TV, but the technology is intelligent enough to pick up on your facial
expression, engagement level, and other significant data. This information has
provided insight into not only what shows people watch the most or are the most
engaged in, but what commercials they prefer to watch as well.
TVision
was co-founded by Dan Schiffman and one of his classmates from the Sloan School
of Management at MIT. Through the installation of a Microsoft Kinect device, most often used for
Xbox video games, on top of TVs, TVision tracks the movement of people’s eyes
in relation to the TV. The device can then record even tiny shifts from
everyone in the room, and then the company matches the movements to what
they’re watching.
The device’s sensors can record minute shifts in all of the
people in the room. The company then matches those viewing patterns to shows
and commercials using technology that listens to what is being broadcast on the
TV.
Since the
technology is still very new, it’s currently being voluntarily tested on 7,500
people in the Boston, Chicago, and Dallas-Fort Worth areas (source).
Obviously there are privacy concerns here. The company states that
they aren’t storing any images or video footage, and it’s only a voluntary
installation, at least for now. But we’ve already seen companies and the U.S.
government abuse similar software to spy on us.
How can we guarantee this information won’t be publicized or sold
to corporations or the government, since that’s already happened in the
past? Where do we draw the line between wanting the latest technical
gadgets and wanting to secure our privacy? Is it even possible to have both
anymore?
Your TV Could Be Watching You Already
This isn’t the first example of surveillance through TVs, and it
probably won’t be the last. In early 2015, Samsung released a statement warning
customers that their Smart TVs were capable of listening to and recording
conversations.
These TVs have voice recognition software, but this fancy piece of
technology comes at a price, and that price is a complete and utter violation
of privacy. Samsung actually warned its customers not to have important
conversations or disclose personal information in front of their Smart TVs
because the audio can be recorded and then transmitted to unidentified third
parties.
Samsung’s privacy policy in regards to the TV actually
reads: “Please be aware that if your spoken words include personal or
other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured
and transmitted to a third party.”
You can
read more about the Samsung controversy in our CE article here.
Vizio TVs were also found to
record people, but the company had to pay $2.2 million to settle charges
for collecting and selling footage from millions of TVs without the
knowledge or consent of its viewers. This is a pretty fair settlement given the
fact that they had sold 11 million of these smart TVs. One can only
imagine how many people were directly affected by this.
The
software, Smart Interactivity, was marketed as a feature that “enables
program offers and suggestions” for users. However, according to the Federal
Trade Commission (FTC), Vizio didn’t actually offer any of these
programs or suggestions for more than two years after being sold. The FTC
suit, which was filed alongside the Attorney General of New Jersey and the
Director of the State’s Division of Consumer Affairs, claimed that
Vizio and its subsidiary, Inscape Services, sold data to third parties (source).
The data collected was able to show what programs and commercials
people watched, and when. It could also measure the effectiveness of
advertisements, as it would use the IP address attached to all of the internet-connected
technological devices in your home to see if you recently searched for anything
in regards to that commercial. For example, if you watched a McDonald’s
commercial and then ordered McDonald’s on your phone, the software would
pick up on that and confirm that the commercial was successful. The software
can also do this in reverse, so if you see an ad online for a cool show and
then you decide to watch it after, the software would pick up on that,
too. The software could also target ads to people on their other
devices, like phones or laptops, based on what they just watched on TV.
Although
Vizio never publicly identified the companies they sold their data to, the FTC
claimed that it included personal information like “sex, age, income,
marital status, household size, education, homeownership and household value” (source).
How Do We Take Back Our Privacy?
If you own a Smart TV, don’t
stress too much! There are ways to opt out of these features (although who
knows if this is guaranteed, but it’s certainly worth a shot). Just do a quick
Google search and you can find out how to opt out of Vizio and Samsung Smart
TVs, if not more.
It’s well-known now that
laptop cameras and microphones are easy targets for hackers, particularly if
those hackers are U.S. government agencies, as they can be activated remotely
(and you may not even know it because that little green light next to your
camera won’t necessarily turn on).
The entire
CE office tapes over their laptop cameras in order to prevent anyone from
potentially spying on us. Even Facebook CEO Mark
Zuckerberg tapes over his laptop camera and microphone as
an easy defence against people spying on him. I encourage you to do the same!
The reality is that we live in a world where everything is
recorded and privacy isn’t always a choice anymore. There are little things
here and there that we can do to avoid being taped or listened to, but that
seems to be getting more and more difficult. We live in a technologically
driven world, so it’s crucial that we voice our opinions and fight for our
privacy. Even if you feel like you don’t have anything to hide, you should
still have the right to do so!
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