Privacy no longer exists. Thank the connected devices installed in your home, starting with your television. Because if you have one of these famous connected televisions, there is a good chance that when you look at it, it also looks at you.
Posted at 1:40 a.m.
Updated at 6:30 a.m.
These televisions, present in more than three out of four homes, according to official statistics, “periodically capture the image displayed on their screen and compare it to image banks to detect what content is being watched” by their owner. . “It’s the equivalent of a Shazam [l’application qui trouve le titre d’une chanson à partir de quelques secondes d’écoute sonore] for audiovisual content on smart TVs. »
When you look away
This is what Californian and European researchers discovered, who published the results of their research at the end of September in a report entitled Watching TV with the Second-Party : A First Look at Automatic Content Recognition Tracking in Smart TVs1.
To summarize, researchers from University College London, the University of California and the Carlos III University of Madrid describe a practice, the automatic and recurring recognition of content, which several connected televisions, also called televisions, seem to do intelligent (or Smart TVsas is often written on their packaging). This recognition of on-screen content makes it possible to segment viewers according to their interests and television viewing habits (sport, reality TV, humor, etc.).
Importantly, this content recognition takes place when the viewer is watching content not coming from the device’s connected applications. We already knew that services like Netflix or YouTube analyze the behavior of their users. Moreover, the connected TVs tested did not attempt to identify the content displayed when these applications are used.
But if the content comes from an antenna or an external source connected via HDMI, such as a DVD player, personal computer or telephone, automated content recognition activates.
The content captured by these recognition systems can therefore come from anywhere. This could be live TV or content from a website. Your TV may pick up images while you are watching a legitimate content source, a pirated video, or content taken from a website, such as porn.
Always more advertising
In their study, the researchers wanted to determine how major connected TV platforms sold in North America and Europe used the data collected on their users. The two televisions used for their tests were from LG and Samsung. Together, these brands represent just over 40% of connected TVs sold in these two markets.
From the images collected by these televisions which are duly identified, a viewer profile is therefore created. This profile then allows the manufacturers of these same televisions to display targeted advertising throughout the television environment on these televisions.
The integration of advertising posters into the interface of connected televisions is a common practice. Amazon, Google, Roku, Vizio… all the platforms do it (except perhaps Apple, which only makes a small receiver, the Apple TV).
Please note that these platforms include advertising that is impossible to remove. Even on televisions that cost very, very, very expensive. You can spend more than $5,000 for a state-of-the-art high-end connected TV. But we can’t get away with it: we will see advertising integrated into the connected interface of the device.
The idea that advertising helps make these TVs more affordable no longer holds much water.
Privacy issue
The only good news, if there is any, is that the user can go to the settings of their television and deactivate advertising tracking. From there, televisions stop periodically analyzing the content displayed on their screen.
Another positive finding – but perhaps not so surprising – revealed by the study: connected televisions capture fewer images where the law protects privacy more.
University researchers do not fail to raise concerns regarding respect for the privacy of owners of connected televisions.
1. View the report
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