George Orwell only gave us a glimpse in his 1984 I am now the owner of a new smart TV, which promises to deliver streaming multimedia content, games, apps, social media and Internet browsing. Oh, and TV too. The only problem is that Im now afraid to use it. You would be too—if you read through the 46-page privacy policy. The amount of data this thing collects is staggering. It logs where, when, how and for how long you use the TV. It sets tracking cookies and beacons designed to detect when you have viewed particular content or a particular email message. It records the apps you use, the websites you visit, and how you interact with content. It ignores do-not-track requests as a considered matter of policy. It also has a built-in camera—with facial recognition. … More troubling is the microphone. The TV boas ts a voice recognition feature that allows viewers to control the screen with voice commands. But the service comes with a rather ominous warning: Please be aware that if your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party. Got that? Dont say personal or sensitive stuff in front of the TV. You may not be watching, but the telescreen is listening. —Salon contributor Michael Price [salon, 10/30/14]
Posted on: Tue, 11 Nov 2014 04:25:21 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015