Streaming platforms including WebOS along with streaming sticks from the likes of Amazon, and Google are putting owners and their families at risk as they lure consumers into their so called home entertainment and smart TV services so they can capture sensitive data about health, children, race and political interests claims a major research study.
Recently we exclusively revealed that LG Electronics who own WebOS and are now selling intrusive OLED and LED TV’s running their smart TV system have started delivering screensavers that are full of advertising, now in a new report titled How TV Watches Us: Commercial Surveillance in the Streaming Era by the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD) the dangers of allowing TV manufacturers including the likes of Hisense, Sony and Samsung to capture data inside homes has revealed the massive dangers that consumers face by allowing intrusive surveillance software by default into their homes.
Recently LG upgraded their WebOS software to include new surveillance capabilities with the Company now using their “smart TVs” to deploy automatic content recognition (ACR) and other monitoring software to capture “an extensive, highly granular, and intimate amount of information that, when combined with contemporary identity technologies, enables tracking and ad targeting at the individual viewer level,”.
The US report claims that this type of technology is extremly dangerous.
CDD claim that Smart TVs such as those sold by LG Electronics Eko, Sony Blaupunkt and Amazon and Google streaming sticks are no longer designed primarily to serve you, the viewer but to deliver confidential information to advertisers.
LG recognised four years ago that they could make billions selling confidential data and subscriptions which is why they gave their reengineered WebOS platform away for free to multiple TV brands as the freebie allowed them to expand their ability to capture and sell data.
While LG screensaver ads or full-screen ads may be annoying, the real issue lies beneath due to the connected TV industry’s “massive data-driven surveillance apparatus” that has “long undermined privacy and consumer protection online” CDD claims.
In Australia a person who buys a TV running WebOS has to accept LG Electronics terms and conditions that allow them to capture data. A failure to accept these conditions which can be found on TV’s sold at Aldi, Big W, The Good Guys and Bing Lee and at a multitude of Australian retailers would result in a consumer not being able to activate the full WebOS which is supposed to be designed to deliver entertainment, not advertising and the capture of data. 
CDD claims that smart TVs have become a “privacy nightmare for viewers” with owners unaware that they are being singled out with information on their viewing habits, internet access via the TV being sold to third parties.
Report co-author Jeff Chester, executive director of CDD. “It is now a core asset for the vast system of digital surveillance that shapes most of our online experiences. Not only do TV Companies operate in ways that are unfair to consumers, but it is also putting them at risk he claims.
The CDD is a highly respected organisation that was founded in 2001.
Based on the findings of its report, CDD has submitted letters to the FTC, FCC, the California Attorney General, and the California Privacy Protection Agency in an effort to put in place controls which consumers believe the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission should be doing.
Collecting data on your viewing habits goes far beyond the ads shown on your TV screen. This data is used to create a detailed profile of you and your family, allowing advertisers to target individuals across the internet.
– “Advertising and data collection are now the driving force in the connected television industry, shaping all of its operations, influencing its program offerings, and spawning a new generation of channels,” the report explained.
This shift is evident in the evolution of TV platforms such as Amazons Fire Sticks Google’s Chromecast, LG’s webOS, along with the TV brands that now use WebOS to deliver a smart TV function.
These platforms now prioritise ads, free channels and redesigned home screens that prominently feature “recommendations” which are basically partner ads that Google LG and Amazon are making millions from every month.
LG claims to have an installed base of over 240 million TV sets in homes where they can today capture data and sell it.
A key method for gathering data is Automatic Content Recognition (ACR), which “is integrated within a TV’s operating system, where it captures frame-by-frame screenshots of content” on your TV. This includes everything from streamed videos and linear channels to video games.
It can also tell whether consumers are watching porn or going into dark web sites via their TV.
Google/YouTube was mentioned 120 times in the report, Disney 117 times, Amazon 104 times, LG 81 times, Samsung 77 times.
CDD warns that consumers should steer clear of free or paid ad-supported streaming services.
TV and streaming stick brands know that to completely avoid Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) you must disconnect your TV from the internet, even if you are using an external media or disc player and that today that is almost impossible as the bulk of TV viewing is via a streaming service.
Analysts claim that streaming networks, TV manufacturers and developers of software such as WebOS, allied with many of the country’s most powerful data brokers, are creating extensive digital dossiers on viewers based on a person’s identity information, viewing choices, purchasing patterns, and thousands of online and offline behaviours.
A visit to the LG AD Solutions web site reveals an arsenal of interactive advertising techniques, including virtual product placement inserted into programming and altered in real time to try and convince an owner of an LG TV to buy an advertiser’s product or service.
Generative AI being used by LG enables marketers to produce thousands of instantaneous “hyper targeted variations” personalised for individual viewers.
Connected television are now integrated with online shopping services and offline retail outlets, creating a seamless commercial and entertainment culture through a number of techniques, including what the industry calls “shoppable ad formats” incorporated into programming and designed to prompt viewers to “purchase their Favorite items without disrupting their viewing experience,” according to industry sources.
