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Television Privacy

Study Claims Vizio Simply Ignores 'Smart' TV Spying Opt Out Requests (techdirt.com) 55

Posted by BeauHD from the would-you-look-at-that dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Techdirt: Recently, reports emerged that LG TVs are sniffing around your local network, and even listening to your local environment, even when the TV is purportedly "off." Some of those voice commands were then stored in plain text and uploaded to the internet. LG's response? To deny everything. [...] That latter point is central to a new study out of Northeastern that conducted 5,943 experiments across twelve commercial "smart" TV devices. The researchers found that most smart TVs utilize automatic content recognition (ACR), a technology that captures audio or video snapshots of viewed content and then monetizes that data to help build personalized profiles of viewers.

TV makers insist that users are supposed to be able to opt out, but the choice simply doesn't work across a large segment of TVs. Companies like Vizio simply ignored the consumer requests entirely more often than not: "We find that the advertised ACR opt-out fully suppresses ACR-attributable traffic on only four operating systems; on Samsung Tizen traffic consistent with ACR activity persists in more than 60% of evaluated scenarios, and on Vizio SmartCast a content correlated endpoint hosted on Amazon Kinesis continues to receive traffic in 100% of opted-out scenarios."

[...] The researchers say since they can't see the precise scope of what's being collected due to encryption, they're unsure whether Vizio is technically violating its FTC agreement (not that we have a current FTC that would care if they were): "The opt-out setting has no observable effect on traffic sent to this endpoint; however, we cannot inspect the payload due to encryption so we cannot confirm whether this violates the FTC settlement." Results of whether opting out of ACR tracking actually stopped ACR tracking were all over the map. Roku, for example, ignores opt-out requests when users are watching Roku's own channels. None of the smart TV vendors track Netflix viewing for fear of violating agreements with the streaming giant. Samsung's opt out function was more likely to actually work when a user was watching antenna broadcasts.

On two Smart TV platforms, personal viewing data collected by ACR remains unencrypted, despite years of bad press and scandal on the subject. Many appear to be violating the law, but because U.S. regulatory oversight has been gutted, they see no meaningful accountability. That includes smart TV OS' like VIDAA, which is most prominently found on Hisense and Toshiba smart TVs: "VIDAA OS sends ACR data to servers run by Unruly over MQTT without encryption, so anyone on the network path between the TV and those servers can read it. Each message carries a Client ID, a permanent identifier for the TV that can't be reset, along with the time zone, the app name, the input (antenna, HDMI), the antenna channel and an audio fingerprint."

Study Claims Vizio Simply Ignores 'Smart' TV Spying Opt Out Requests More | Reply

Study Claims Vizio Simply Ignores 'Smart' TV Spying Opt Out Requests

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  • Just don't connect it. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by magzteel ( 5013587 ) on Monday November 02, 2026 @06:04PM (#66406903)

    Don't connect the TV to your network. Don't use the smart apps, they usually suck anyway.
    Connect a streaming stick you like to an HDMI input and you're done.

    • Re:Just don't connect it. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by b0s0z0ku ( 752509 ) on Monday November 02, 2026 @06:08PM (#66406911)

      Connect a box with a drive full of media that you own instead of streaming.

      However, there have been reports that some "smart TVs" try to connect to open WiFi networks even if you don't turn the feature on. Safest thing would probably be to open it up and scrape the circuit trace to the antenna.

      • Possibly worth setting a wifi router without WAN access to stop the fishing expeditions.

        • Re:Just don't connect it. (Score:5, Insightful)

          by taustin ( 171655 ) on Monday November 02, 2026 @06:59PM (#66406961) Homepage Journal

          At which point, it will probably look for alternate open WiFi that's not restricted.

          Best to not buy a smart TV at all.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by jhoegl ( 638955 )
            Yup this.... they are still exploitable, and the solution given here sucks. OP is literally saying, "let someone else deal with it". A society protects others, by fighting corporate bullshit.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by bobby ( 109046 )

            At which point, it will probably look for alternate open WiFi that's not restricted.

            Best to not buy a smart TV at all.

            Hopefully most WiFi networks are at least password protected. There are no "open" ones near me. The few "open" WiFi I ever encounter force a webpage login before packets are passed to the Internet.

            But the question is: are there any non-smart TVs being made now?

            Too much like TVs, are there any non-network connected cars available new?

      • When was the last time anyone saw a completely open wifi connection? Even the "open" xfinity connections force you to a captured xfinity login page.

        • Don't a lot of the captive portal ones just do trickery with DNS? There's no guarantee they're not leaky.

        • Re:Just don't connect it. (Score:4, Informative)

          by PPH ( 736903 ) on Monday November 02, 2026 @08:29PM (#66407065)

          So Vizio has a secret handshake deal with Xfinity. I wouldn't be surprised if they have such a deal with cellular carriers as well.

          You're just not safe unless you are on a desert island. Then Starlink flies over ....

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by mjwx ( 966435 )

            So Vizio has a secret handshake deal with Xfinity. I wouldn't be surprised if they have such a deal with cellular carriers as well.

            You're just not safe unless you are on a desert island. Then Starlink flies over ....

            Yep, and with the amount of WiFi access points doubling as mobile phone repeaters these days it'll be relatively easy to get access to a network by making a deal with telephony providers. No need to hope for an unsecured network.

        • Anytime your visiting plumber had a phone on which he'd turned on the hotspot from, but passwords are hard, so he turned that off.

      • Between my Macs and IoT/Arduino playthings, most of the wifi stuff I've seen that's bigger them a phone has an antenna connector and tiny coax. You can usually pop it off with a spudger.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        People have reported that simply removing the WiFi modem from LG sets has no ill effects.

    • That's my plan. Block it at the router.

      This month I plan to replace my 720P maximum 2006 vintage Hewlet Packard TV I inherited when Dad passed on.

      That should be quite a jump. There in only one wifi network in range and no OTA TV, so a dumb monitor is all it will be anyway.

    • And the USB stick of course will not spy on you.

    • Note that if youâ(TM)re using a Roku TV youâ(TM)ll have to enable the retail display mode to do this. Otherwise it will require you to sign in before you can use it as a TV or monitor.

  • So who was President in 2017? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Gotta love the snarky comment about Trump's FTC being all in on this when it was Trump's FTC that levied the fine.

  • This is reprehensible. I hope that they all get their pants sued off. They deserve to be penalized even if it is only the lawyers that get the money.

    But, let's keep things on the up and up. This:

    None of the smart TV vendors track Netflix viewing for fear of violating agreements with the streaming giant.

    Is pure speculation. Not fact. It should not have been included in the report.

    Just the facts, Maam. - Joe Friday

    • Lawsuit isn't enough - this is likely a CRIMINAL violation of privacy laws in multiple jurisdictions. There needs to be a prosecutorial investigation, and for the decision-makers to be criminally charged. Even a day in jail and a record would discourage this type of behaviour in future.

      • Even a day in jail and a record would discourage this type of behaviour in future.

        I'd have to be a pretty bad day in that criminal resort in order to really discourage the behavior.

        Registered felon, isn't exactly a standard metric used to restrict executive hiring. Particularly when 21st Century greed damn near demands sociopathic leadership.

      • Re:Reprehensible (Score:4, Insightful)

        by awwshit ( 6214476 ) on Monday November 02, 2026 @07:00PM (#66406963)

        Deterrence is more about knowing you will get caught than fearing a crazy sentence. If you won't get caught then the consequence does not matter. It might not work like you think.

        https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/art... [ojp.gov]

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by taustin ( 171655 )

        I agree. There are jurisdictions that don't require the consent of everyone to record private conversations, but are none that don't require the consent of anyone.

        Their defense, of course, would be "you gave consent in the click wrap TOS you didn't read," but such abusive terms have been declared unconscionable before.

        All a pipe dream, though, regardless of who is in the White House or controls Congress.

  • not just them (Score:4, Insightful)

    by bobmagicii ( 5434818 ) on Monday November 02, 2026 @06:18PM (#66406925)
    expecting *any* company to honor that is a joke. it should be obvious to anyone with an email address, since unsubscribing never stops the marketing. the request is simply ignored, or, they will just make a "new list" every month that you need to re-opt-out of.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Only because your jurisdiction has crap privacy laws. Vizeo is a US brand that doesn't sell into Europe, because if they did this would be a massive GDPR violation and they would be looking at a hefty fine.

  • Don't Buy Vizio (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Bob_Who ( 926234 ) on Monday November 02, 2026 @06:21PM (#66406931) Journal

    Boycott Scumbags.

    • The problem is, they are all scumbags.

    • Every single TV manufacturer is doing this. If you have a problem with it just buy a really really huge PC monitor I guess. It'll cost you about $1,500 instead of $300 though.

      And there is no point to getting angry at companies for doing what companies do. Not when people on this forum refused to vote for the kind of politicians that would properly regulate them. I guarantee you some of the people reading this will vote Republican on Tuesday. Even though the Republicans refuse to enforce laws against wha

  • This is what keeps me on projectors. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by TigerPlish ( 174064 ) on Monday November 02, 2026 @06:34PM (#66406943)

    This is the biggest thing that keeps me on projectors.

    At least for now, the projectors I buy are dumb as a brick, and apple TV is also pretty dumb, it doens't have ACR. My HTPC is from 2011, it's positively jurassic, so it also is not gonna rat me out.

    There is zero incentive for me to add a "TV" to this house. none. If I needed a 2nd display, i'd find the gnarliest, largerst "monitor" and use that.

    I knew the programming content in TV had quickly gone to shit once the Reality Show became a thing but the hardware has suffered tremendously since the days of CRT Trinitrons.

    I really want no part of this TV future. Those affected, sharpen your suing pencils, fight the good fight, 'tho all you'll get is a dime for every million dollars they make. Good luck, and all that.

    • You can just not connect these screens to the internet. Some of the more annoying ones that are really cheap will give you a bit of nagging when you boot them up before switching to your video.

      Don't get me wrong we should properly regulate businesses but this is way down on the list of crimes a company might commit or laws that we refuse to enforce.

      • Please. My TV is showing my kids sports betting ads every time they turn it on. This needs to be regulated.

        • Please. My TV is showing my kids sports betting ads every time they turn it on. This needs to be regulated.

          What brand of TV do you have? I have an old Samsung Smart TV, and it is not connected to the internet at all. I use a roku streaming device instead.

  • How long before this attracts the attention of the EU? AFAIK most of these are clear violations of the GDPR, and at least some if not most of these TVs are sold in Europe. Since a GDPR fine could be 2% - 4% of a year's revenue for the entire company, that would likely engage the interest of the exec and the board. The fallout would likely trickle back to the US. Even a response of "Well, we fixed it for the EU, but the US laws don't compel us to do anything, so suck it Americans" probably wouldn't go down w

  • Start collecting (Score:4, Informative)

    by RitchCraft ( 6454710 ) on Monday November 02, 2026 @08:10PM (#66407043)

    It's time to start collecting old TVs. For the last 10 years you could get old flat screen TVs for damn near nothing or free. I have a nice 60" hanging on my wall that is 8 years old given to me by a friend that upgraded. I have a 55" curved Samsung that is 10 years old (got it free), a 50" Insignia that is at least 10 years old (got it free), a 40" Samsung that I purchased new from Newegg back in 2010 (my first flat screen TV), and a 32" Viewsonic that is over 10 years old (again, free). Craigslist is dead (at least in my neck of the woods) and shipping through eBay is impossible so people have a hard time unloading old large TVs. Get out there, get them, and hold on to them until this illegal spyware BS is stopped. None of my TVs are connected to a network (I only use two of the TVs, the others are spares). I have a NAS with all my media and computers that I purchased off-lease for damn near nothing (Most are 6th gen i7s) to repurpose as HTPCs to run Kodi. If you are knowledgeable help others out with setups like this. If you need help seek it out. My media, no commercials, no cable bill. The irony is LG stands for Life is Good. Nope. My setup makes life good.

    • The irony is LG stands for Life is Good.

      No, LG stands for Lucky Goldstar and they would appreciate you forget the Goldstar branding ever existed.

  • We just heard that there is an intermediate key with a private key of 4. Why can't they MITM with their own key and see what it says? Any TV you buy today won't be updated yet, so it won't know not to trust that intermediate key.
    • And MITMProxy [github.com] is here to help you do it.
    • Nice idea. Just that it does not apply here. Who trusts whom. They don't need their device to trust thousands of as of yet unknown servers aka browser trusts whatever.com configured with https and centrally trusted network of authorities say yes this good one through certs. They only need their private key on one machine and public key on another. So if you can guess what their receiving servers private key is, then you can decrypt what's encrypted there. I guess they used standard random key, not deliberat

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Sloppy ( 14984 )

      Why would a manufacturer's device need a trusted introducer to communicate with that same manufacturer? Vizio can be its own CA. There's no intermediary between themself and themself.

  • Humanity is a hostile environment. Always has been.

    Mastering what you own is educational fun so there's every reason to learn.

    • Sure ... I can change myself ... even do high cost efforts like self-improvement. But ...  Isn't busting a neekap of the offending perp more effective ? Bastard will never walk the same way again.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by m00sh ( 2538182 )

      Humanity is a hostile environment. Always has been.

      Mastering what you own is educational fun so there's every reason to learn.

      They are already coming for your router as well.

      Pretty soon you'll have to use a pre-approved firmware that you cannot change any settings.

      Look at how internet access is changing. Xfinity already has a locked down router that forces an open wifi connection that can be shared with others. I'm sure it will let TVs send data through there (if they pay comcast).

      Even if you hack and lock everything down, your neighbor could get one or they'll put in a cell module and send data that way. Cars all have built in ce

  • Need to start penalizing them a % of gross income or something. And create tests with teeth that consumers can use.

  • Don't buy one.

    If you do, don't ever connect it to a network.

  • I doubt cutting access to what you think of as the internet would stop them.
    There are what 4 tv manufacture that matter TCL, ROKU, Vizio, Samsung and LG. Ok 5.
    If you think they have not built a side network in them you are mistaken.

  • If you want a screen, get a TV, never connect it and then plug in HDMI whatever device you want to play/stream content. I had a Vizio TV, it never saw the internet. No need for updates since I never used the built in apps.

  • because U.S. regulatory oversight has been gutted, they see no meaningful accountability

    Everyone knows America loves lawsuits. Time for a big one.

  • ...is a list of smart TVs that *aren't* spying on users. Sadly, I suspect the list is quite short and it will take some time for the independent reviewers to thoroughly test most brands.

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