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Texas Sues Top TV Makers for 'Secretly Recording' What You Watch

Ed Nielson

Ed Nielson

My inclination is to say "good... go for it."
A data-harvesting technique in today’s smart TVs has sparked Texas to sue the top display makers, accusing them of spying on consumers by routinely capturing screenshots.

“This conduct is invasive, deceptive, and unlawful,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton says. “The fundamental right to privacy will be protected in Texas because owning a television does not mean surrendering your personal information to Big Tech or foreign adversaries.”
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www.pcmag.com

Texas Sues Top TV Makers for 'Secretly Recording' What You Watch

Automated Content Recognition (ACR) is mainly used to serve up targeted ads on smart TVs, but Texas AG Ken Paxton is suing LG, Samsung, Sony, and others for hiding it away in settings.
www.pcmag.com www.pcmag.com
 
For those of you outside of Texas: Be aware that Ken Paxton is a Trump sycophant who is running against incumbent U.S. Senator John Cornyn in the Republican primary next year. He is also the epitome of a sleazy politician, but I will spare you what I really think of him as it would get this thread shut down.

This is mostly political theatre aimed at the MAGA base.
 
TheBigA said:
I wonder if his lawsuit could also apply to Nielsen, since the PPM basically does the same thing.
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Nielsen families know what they're getting into when they agree to be part of the panel. That is, using a Nielsen meter in your home is not "secretly recording" anything.

Even if there is a disclosure buried in the terms, I don't think most consumers are aware that TV manufacturers collect data on their customers.
 
PTBoardOp93 said:
Even if there is a disclosure buried in the terms, I don't think most consumers are aware that TV manufacturers collect data on their customers.
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All businesses collect data on their customers in one way or another. Amazon probably has more on me now than DOD did when I had a government clearance decades ago.
 
PTBoardOp93 said:
Even if there is a disclosure buried in the terms, I don't think most consumers are aware that TV manufacturers collect data on their customers.
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Depends on how the privacy laws are written. Do you know how much data your browser collects from you right now? Same thing.

Some recent laws in Texas have done away with some rights to privacy. It depends who you are and what you do.
 
Don CT said:
So the dude never heard about ad agencies I guess.
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What does an ad agency have to do with data capture by TV set companies? The advertisers only buy based on third party data, and do not monitor TV sets themselves. P
 
PTBoardOp93 said:
Nielsen families know what they're getting into when they agree to be part of the panel. That is, using a Nielsen meter in your home is not "secretly recording" anything.

Even if there is a disclosure buried in the terms, I don't think most consumers are aware that TV manufacturers collect data on their customers.
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Still, if you give consent the “other party” can and usually will capture information.
 
davideduardo said:
Still, if you give consent the “other party” can and usually will capture information.
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My point is that Nielsen shares their data with advertisers. Even if they have your "consent," that is information those advertisers can and will use. Just like with social media, and just like with these smart TVs.
 
Don CT said:
How do you think the agencies get the information on buying habits. They get it from data brokers who sell it.
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They don't get "buying habits" from a TV manufacturer's usage data. They get just that: who viewed what and when. They don't get demographics, buying habits, income data, etc.

I don't know what a "data broker" is.

The set makers that sell ads on their own channels sell to advertisers or their agencies with a sales team or a sales representative firm that takes a commission. That is how ad media has sold for the last hundred or so years... either their own offices in media centers (LA, Atlanta, Chicago, LA, etc) or rep firms that do that on commission.
 
One other thing: It's been pointed out that smart speakers also are live and capture information they hear in homes. So why should this only apply to TVs and not smart speakers?
 
TheBigA said:
One other thing: It's been pointed out that smart speakers also are live and capture information they hear in homes. So why should this only apply to TVs and not smart speakers?
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The biggest issue with things that monitor car radios, smart speakers and the like is that they can't tell who is listening or viewing. So the demographic data is going to be very fuzzy at best.

The kind of targeting that we get with Nielsen for things like all sports stations is not available in passive measurement systems.
 
davideduardo said:
The biggest issue with things that monitor car radios, smart speakers and the like is that they can't tell who is listening or viewing. So the demographic data is going to be very fuzzy at best.

The kind of targeting that we get with Nielsen for things like all sports stations is not available in passive measurement systems.
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Spotify knows exactly what I’m listening to and when. Facebook knows more about us than anyone. The information is out there.
 
Mediafrog+ said:
For those of you outside of Texas: Be aware that Ken Paxton is a Trump sycophant who is running against incumbent U.S. Senator John Cornyn in the Republican primary next year. He is also the epitome of a sleazy politician, but I will spare you what I really think of him as it would get this thread shut down.

This is mostly political theatre aimed at the MAGA base.
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Yup.

And it should also be pointed out that Ken Paxton simply isn't a very good state AG. Generally speaking, the AG's office under him has a reputation as being poorly run and slipshod. He also has a tendency to go off on some pretty unhinged and crazy tangents -- notably, he's also suing Tylenol.

So the safe bet is that this lawsuit will go nowhere.
 


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