Smart TVs are data collection machines, new studies show

Add smart TVs to the growing list of home appliances that are guilty of examining people's movements. A new study from Princeton University shows internet-connected TVs, which let people stream Netflix and Hulu, are loaded with data-hungry trackers.

"If you use a device like Roku and Amazon Fire TV, there are many companies that can build a pretty comprehensive picture of what you are watching," Arvind Narayanan, associate professor of computer science at Princeton, wrote in an email to The Verge . "There is very little oversight or awareness of their practice, including where this data is being sold."

Of course, data is part of the reason why TVs have become so cheap. Today, Roku sells for under $ 200, partly subsidized by targeted advertising. Technically, people agree to sell their data when setting up their devices. But many people do not realize it is even happening.

This is true for other smart home technology as well. In another study, researchers at Northeastern University looked at 81 smart home devices and found that some, including Amazon's Ring Bell and Alexa, and the Zmodo Door Bell, monitor when a user is talking or moving, even when they are not using the device. "The app used to set up the [Ring] device does not warn the user that the doorbell is performing such real-time recording, the doorbell gives no indication that the recording is happening, and the only disclosure is in fine print as part of the privacy policy, "it says in the newspaper.

To understand how much monitoring is happening on smart TVs, Narayanan and his co-author Hooman Mohajeri Moghaddam built a bot that automatically installed thousands of channels on their Roku and Amazon Fire TVs. Then mimicked human behavior by browsing and watching videos. As soon as it entered an ad, it would track what data was collected behind the scenes.

Some of the information, such as device type, city, and state, is hardly unique to a user. But other data, such as the serial number, Wi-Fi network, and ad ID, can be used to find a person. "This gives them a more complete picture of who you are," Moghaddam said. He noted that some channels even sent unencrypted email addresses and video titles to the trackers.

In total, the study found trackers on 69 percent of Roku channels and 89 percent of Amazon Fire channels. "Some of these are well-known, such as Google, while many others are relatively obscure companies that most of us have never heard of," Narayanan said. Google's DoubleClick advertising service was found on 97 percent of Roku channels.

"Like other publishers, smart TV app developers can use Google's advertising services to serve ads against their content, and we've helped shape the industry's guidelines for enabling a user-friendly privacy experience," said a spokesperson from Google in a statement sent to The Verge . "Depending on user preferences, the developer may share data with Google similar to data used for ads in mobile apps or the web."

Both Roku and Amazon Fire allow users to turn off targeted advertising. However, doing so simply prevents the user's creative ID from being tracked – not the other unique identifiable information.

"Better privacy checks will certainly help, but they are ultimately band-aids," Narayanan said. "The business model for targeted advertising on TV is incompatible with privacy, and we have to confront that reality. To maximize revenue, ad-targeting platforms are likely to resort to data mining and algorithmic personalization / persuasion to keep people glued to the screen for as long as possible. "