The technological revolution is one of the weapons of the 21st century, that Pentium II computer is already behind us, now we can stay connected to the internet in the blink of an eye, and a lot of the devices that exist in the world give us this possibility. TV is no longer just a normal TV, making a trip to the past, the Sharp 21 which was the salvation of almost all Angolans, nor do I know if they still remember him, almost no longer exists.
Now it's Smart TV, the modern TV that everyone has (or dreams of having) in their living room, know that it does not only bring milk and honey, they also do a good job of spying on you.
The investment we made in a Smart TV is quite significant, depending on the condition of each person (when choosing the type of inch, if it is 3D, how much HD etc.) and it does not limit itself to just serving us on TPA's TV channels , TV Zimbo, DSTV, or Zap. She is capable of doing much more than you think. She knows how to offer you personalized content, with only clips viewed or applications installed, she will get to know you better. In addition, your manufacturer (producer) knows users well and there are several companies willing to pay to obtain this information.
For several years, custom ads are no longer found only on Google, Gmail, YouTube, FaceBook, or your favorite sites, Instagram has recently joined this club as well. Smart TVs have learned to show ads to "please you." If this particularity does not bother you, there is the security vulnerability included in a Smart TV that can help you raise a few questions about the benefits of being able to access YouTube or a direct web page on your TV.
How does a Smart TV help us?
We get very excited when we invest money in a TV, especially when it comes to a TV that will be covers to display our multimedia content from a variety of significant sources. These creations appeal to everyone and more for the sake of bringing thousands of reasons to have one at home, and to enjoy its multiple applications. As is the case with the App Samsung Smart View which allows us to follow a program anywhere in the house, just connect our Smartphone or Tablet on the same Wi-Fi network as the TV.
Samsung Smart View
More for each positive point there are two negative points in the case of Smart TVs, even more if you are someone who watches over privacy (intimacy). Modern TV's, with internet connectivity, inspect everything we saw, and seconds later they send this information back to their manufacturer. These data are then sold to third parties or used to fill out a well-defined profile, with the aim of showing you future ads that may be of interest to you. And in reality, you gain nothing from the information you provided indirectly, you just help the industry giants tech to double their income, after investing a significant amount of money on a Smart TV. To make you more surprised, many of these parameters are activated by default from the company that manufactures them.
The amount of information collected varies from manufacturer to manufacturer, one more thing you have to understand, that Samsung, Sony, LG, Philips, Sharp and other manufacturers are not satisfied with just the information collected from the applications you install on your Smart TV. Even if you use a third-party player or device for streaming, such as Apple TV or Chromecast, the image is analyzed and the result is sent to the manufacturer. Even the number of the channel you are watching at the moment can arrive at the company behind the TV, names of video files that you were watching from a USB stick connected to one of the TV's USB ports. As if that were not enough, because all devices connected to the Internet from your home use a single IP when you are online, you can test this by watching a particular video on TV and seeing ads related to that type of content when use your laptop, phone or tablet.
IThis all happens, because people never stop to think, of certain things that are put in front of them and it seems a DejáVù. Let's do a simple test: Write it down on a piece of paper / notepad: try to search google / facebook about something eg "Poker" after a few minutes, hours / days. When you are surfing the internet, you will see that almost all the ads that appear on the YouTube page or those videos that are 5 seconds before the main video appears are about Poker. Nothing is by chance.
Then you can come with the magic word and say that I have nothing to hide, yes, it is your right to do what you want. Unfortunately, the list of movies you watched last week has a great chance of not only reaching the companies mentioned above. Because the data is delivered in an unencrypted format, and it can be easily recovered by third parties, either by hackers, crackers or your Internet operator.
The beginning or idea of the attack man in the midle, in the opposite direction, your television can execute commands that do not necessarily come from Vizio for example, but from another person. If we take into account that most of the new Smart TVs come with microphone, webcams, we do not want to remind ourselves of Samsung's scandal a few years ago to realize the magnitude of the risk we are exposed to. Can you be excited to switch the TV channel with just one statement using the voice command? Plus all other statements or conversations made in front of the TV that have no relation to the reproduction of multimedia contents can be obtained by third parties. Due to such situations it is very scary the fact that you may be being chased through a TV.
Leaving aside these spicy comments, the South Koreans defended themselves by saying that data security is at a high level and that the information collected is not used for advertising purposes. Below is the official response from Samsung.
"Samsung is serious about the privacy of its users. For all Samsung Smart TV's, the use of selected information will be carried out with maximum transparency. Users can choose to use or disable the services we provide. We use the industry standards and practices of security solutions, including data encryption, to protect users' personal information to prevent unauthorized collection and use.
Voice recognition, which allows users to control their TV via voice commands, is a feature of Samsung Smart TV and can be turned on or off by the user. If the user activates voice recognition, the information collected will be only that which involves commands to the television or phrases used for searches. Users can easily find out whether this feature is enabled through the microphone icon that appears on the screen.
Samsung does not sell the selected information to outside parties. If a user accepts the terms and conditions and uses voice recognition, the information will be delivered by an external provider during the voice command period. At that point, the voice commands are sent to a server, which hosts the content searches, and then the desired content is displayed on the TV screen.
Samsung encourages users to get in touch with the company when they have a question about a product. "
Stay tuned to part 2, we will show various forms of protection for those who have a Smart TV.
