If you watch television on an internet-connected TV, it may be watching you back.
Data-slurpers: The New York Times took a close look today at the rise of services that track viewers’ watching habits—in particular at a company called Samba TV, which has claimed to gather second-by-second information on what people are watching from software it’s installed on some 13.5 million smart TVs in the US.
Been here before: Last year, the Federal Trade Commission fined Vizio for $2.2 million over a similar issue. But that was because Vizio sold the data it collected to third parties without users’ consent. Samba walks a fine line—it pays TV manufacturers like Sony and Philips to carry its software, but the data isn’t sold. Instead, Samba uses the information to sell targeted ads.
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