Smart TVs sucking up your viewing data and more (Consumer Advice) [Video]

Smart TVs have been classified as one of the most invasive technologies to enter our homes. We add that any smart technology could be painted with the same black brush.

If you are old enough to remember the ’60s, you used to fill out a Neilsen TV rating book. You were told it was to help TV networks show more appropriate programs, but it was actually used to sell more advertising for popular shows.

With the advent of the internet, you were invited to place an OzTAM (owned by 7, 9, 10 networks) Neilsen ‘black box’ on your free-to-air dumb TV that recorded who is watching (you pressed a button), the time, duration and date, whether each TV was on/off, and the television audio (sound). Behind the scenes, a sophisticated ‘audio/video content matching’ process revealed what TV show you were watching.

But things started to get more complicated with the …