02-07-2017, 02:11 PM
http://gizmodo.com/tv-maker-vizio-to-pay...1792056140
The Federal Trade Commission announced today that it has reached a settlement with Vizio, which it alleged misled customers about what data its smart TVs were collecting. Vizio agreed to pay $2.2 million in penalties, including $1.5 million to the FTC and $1 million to the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs, with $300,000 suspended.
The lawsuit centered on Vizio’s “Smart Interactivity” feature, which the company said “enables program offers and suggestions.” That sounds great! I love offers and suggestions, as do my friends and family!
But that wasn’t really what was happening. According to the complaint, Vizio began tracking consumers’ data in February 2014, on both new and old TVs. The “Smart Interactivity” feature was a cover for a technology called ACR, which tracks viewing data “second-by-second,” while the TV settings offered no explanation about what that feature was actually doing.
The biggest privacy concern surrounding this practice is that the tracked data included IP addresses. This information, passed through a “data aggregator,” enabled advertisers to track your behavior across devices, which in turn allowed advertisers to see, for example, “whether a consumer ha[d] viewed a particular television program following exposure to an online advertisement for that program.”
The Federal Trade Commission announced today that it has reached a settlement with Vizio, which it alleged misled customers about what data its smart TVs were collecting. Vizio agreed to pay $2.2 million in penalties, including $1.5 million to the FTC and $1 million to the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs, with $300,000 suspended.
The lawsuit centered on Vizio’s “Smart Interactivity” feature, which the company said “enables program offers and suggestions.” That sounds great! I love offers and suggestions, as do my friends and family!
But that wasn’t really what was happening. According to the complaint, Vizio began tracking consumers’ data in February 2014, on both new and old TVs. The “Smart Interactivity” feature was a cover for a technology called ACR, which tracks viewing data “second-by-second,” while the TV settings offered no explanation about what that feature was actually doing.
The biggest privacy concern surrounding this practice is that the tracked data included IP addresses. This information, passed through a “data aggregator,” enabled advertisers to track your behavior across devices, which in turn allowed advertisers to see, for example, “whether a consumer ha[d] viewed a particular television program following exposure to an online advertisement for that program.”
