Smart TVs can tell what’s playing on the screen and show you pop-up ads based on what you watch.

[dixiegrrrrl]

So discovered security researcher Paul McMillan this week while watching Inglorious Basterds on his Samsung smart TV: one minute into the movie, an Army recruitment ad popped up on the screen.
Now, pop-up ads on Samsung and other smart TVs have been discovered before. But the weird thing here is that the TV can seemingly recognize any input you play through it, and add ads on top. What’s more, the ads may be targeted based on content recognition, a sort of built-in Shazam for ads.
McMillan was watching the movie through an Amazon Fire set top box, and as an experiment, tried playing it from his computer connected to the TV through an HDMI cable. In both cases the Army ad appeared at the one-minute mark, leading McMillan to deduce that the ad was being served by Samsung, and that the internet-connected TV was using content recognition to show ads on top of any video coming in through the TV’s input.

Smart TVs have embedded “automatic content recognition” technology that’s analyzing viewing habits and "sending data to third parties on everything you watch"

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/youre-going-to-need-an-ad-blocker-for-your-next-tv?utm_source=mbtwitter

Article contains lots of info on how TV sets are wired to listen to you, and to share what they hear with advertisers!

[Gidney N Cloyd]

1. K&R.

[Electric Monk]

2. Is Your Smart TV Watching YOU?

http://www.thenewamerican.com/tech/item/21967-is-your-smart-tv-watching-you
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/smart-tv-watching-not-one/
http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/11/own-a-vizio-smart-tv-its-watching-you/

[NightWatcher]

3. How long before tvs will narc on its viewer?

I have, on occasion, taken a bong rip or three while watching silly sitcoms or other comedies. Does my tv know that I don't live in a state where that's legal, and is there a chance it might drop a dime on me to the police?

These are reasons why I will not buy a smart tv anytime soon.

[awoke_in_2003]

5. I first read 1984 in 1984

I have re-read it probably six times since then. We just keep moving closer and closer.

[laundry_queen]

15. We sure are. nt

[Snobblevitch]

4. If I had one of these televisions,

I would cover any potential camera and disable the microphone. If you had one, the entire point is for it to be connected to wifi, so I guess I would attempt to find a guy who coukd tell me how to disable the 'spy' features.

[Smarmie Doofus]

7. A lot easier to just keep the friggin' thing out of your house. No?

My niece got one recently. It takes up virtually an entire wall of the LR.

I told her the problem w. Smart TV is that it spends more time watching you than you do watching IT.

She says that's ok because she's not embarrassed about anything she might do in her living room.

Very smart kid but.... oyyyyyy.

I have a feeing she's NOT feeling the Bern.

[Go Vols]

24. I turned the signal to my TV off in my router.

The day I bought it.I turn it back on every few months to see if there is a firmware update,then back off.

All routers prolly don't support this tho.

[lpbk2713]

6. Looks like I've bought my last new TV.

How long before my life is like an episode out of the Twilight Zone?

[pnwmom]

11. Non-smart TV's are cheaper. That's what I bought. nt

[hollysmom]

8. I thought it was only Samsung and LE that was doing it for now and some brands have promised to not

do that.

[dixiegrrrrl]

14. the article goes into that. n/t

[Initech]

10. Easy solution to that - don't enable your TV to connect to the internet.

Disable the internet connection, problem solved!

[Egnever]

12. Cause there aren't enough ads on tv

sheesh

[alcibiades_mystery]

13. Who cares?

I mean, honestly. Even if true, who gives a shit?

[ellenrr]

16. honestly, you don't care that your every move is being scrutinized??

[JI7]

17. So get a non smart tv

[dixiegrrrrl]

18. How long will it be before a smart tv is the only option to buy?

Just like smart cars now.

[ellenrr]

20. not long.

[whatthehey]

21. by whom?

Do tin foil hatters imagine an army of hundreds of millions of Agent Mikes watching and listening through everyone's TV 24/7? That would solve any softness in the labor market immediately for one.

Or do you envision a giant database of every moment watched, every passing conversation, every image captured, of which 99.99% would be glassy-eyed proles staring back at the camera? Forget the storage space - and no the government's data centers are not that large - there isn't an image search database and software fast enough by orders of magnitude to seek out a quick glimpse of a handwritten Arabic phrase meaning any given variation of 'bomb plot to go ahead' in all those yottabytes in time for it to be of use, even if we posit such groups have abandoned their practice of doing the planning in Pakistani bunkers in favor of Peoria sitting rooms in front of cameras and mics.

Which leaves the "why care" question to apply to what's really going on here. Car manufacturers know that on average if your TV costs more because of quality features rather than mainsail size, and your viewing habits include Masterpiece Theatre, serious financial shows and foreign movies more than humiliation-based reality and innuendo-driven sitcoms, they would be better off piping an ad for a Mercedes to you rather than for a pick up truck. The more they can gather from your viewing and browsing that you may be interested in the outdoors too means they can pipe in GL ads instead of S class.

In other words they want to show you ads that interest you and thereby enrich themselves. I'll avoid advertising where I can, but when it's unavoidable I'd prefer it to be tailored to my interests, which generally don't include the medications, X-games type fitness routines, as-seen-on-TV trinkets and car insurance which seems to be the steady diet I get fed. And since I've had one of these spy-masters in my house for a couple years now, tied to the same wifi that gets all my internet traffic, I really wouldn't worry about precise personal intelligence databases being built on you by the same means.

[font color="white"]I predict the general responses will be that this clumsy ad-feed is a sign that they (who exactly?) really ARE building a dossier on me behind the scenes but don't want to give the game away, even though the same "they" have mysteriously allowed multiple scaremongering articles like the one above revealing details about their nefarious plot. All to lull is into a false sense of security about the coming jackbooted thug raids taking away....whom? And why none yet? Smart TVs are hardly 2016-new.[/font]

[alcibiades_mystery]

22. Uh, not really

They know what I watch on teevee? Oh mah GAAAAWD!!!

Who gives a fuck? I don't get it.

[hobbit709]

19. One of the reasons I use my HTPC box instead of a "smart" TV.

[hatrack]

23. Cool - yet another reason to save money by not buying a smart TV

Thanks, Dixiegrrrl!