Dear Robin-
I just purchased a wonderful smart TV. Can the TV see what I am doing in my home?
Elle L. -Michigan
Hi Ellie-
The short answer is no. Currently smart TV's do not come with camera devices that can see what you are doing, but many of the Smart TV's do come with listening devices and use a feature called ACR or automatic content recognition to track what you watch. They are designed to collect data about programs that you have watched, your network provider, and things that you search for. The TV providers collect this data so that they can target advertising and get to know you as a customer.
If you want to take back some of the control of your own data, you can turn off some of the data collection features on your smart TV. Where you go to do this depends on the type of TV that you own. Here are some hints: go to Settings, Terms and Policies and then to the viewing information services. This is a good place to start. When you buy a new smart TV during setup, read the terms and conditions carefully. There is also a lot of information online to help you disable the features you don't want to use.
Many smart TV models also come with some serious privacy issues as well, since they can be easily hacked by the bad guys. Make sure that you change the original password and create a strong secure password to protect your TV and your home network
If you would like to learn more check out the my resources on CyberSafeSenior.com
Are you Smarter than Your Smart TV? (Podcast)
