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Your Vizio smart TV is sharing information with marketers

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 15 Nov 2015 6:27 User comments (6)

Your Vizio smart TV is sharing information with marketers

Vizio's smart TVs are tracking your viewing habits and sharing it with advertisers - and you probably don't even know it's happening.
Dubbed "Smart Interactivity," the tracking method is turned on by default for over 10 million smart TVs the company has sold in the past few years.

Vizio confirms this is true, saying in a statement that "customers'non-personal identifiable information may be shared with select partners ... to permit these companies to make, for example, better-informed decisions regarding content production, programming and advertising."

That's just the beginning, however. After the company tracks what you view, it records your IP address and then works with data brokers to connect the IP address to other personal information such as age and gender and even income. This profile is then passed on to advertisers who may target ads to your PC or smartphone.

During a recent earnings conference call, Vizio specifically noted its ability to provide "highly specific viewing behavior data on a massive scale with great accuracy." Luckily, not all is lost as users can choose to opt-out of the tracking but if you are buying a Vizio smart TV you may want to think about who's watching.

Source:
Propublica

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6 user comments

115.11.2015 21:54

You get what you pay for Vizio are utterly shit tv's.

215.11.2015 22:21

So how do we turn it off then?
Vizios r good. I love mine. Cnet rates them high.

316.11.2015 01:59

Originally posted by omendata:
You get what you pay for Vizio are utterly shit tv's.

I've a Vizio that's out lasted a Samsung an LG and a Sony the Samsung died do to really crappy logic board layout, the LG Started Generating Tab Errors, and the Sony Needed a new PowerBoard.

The Vizio did die eventually but it was a simple cap repair the others needed full on diagnostics and part replacements. They lack features, but IMHO that's a plus.

For the whole knowing what you watch and IP Address lookup. Nielsen/content providers have been doing it since tubes and most decent ISP will not let that information go.
This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 16 Nov 2015 @ 2:08

416.11.2015 06:38

Originally posted by 8686:
So how do we turn it off then?
Vizios r good. I love mine. Cnet rates them high.
Cnet is not a company with a very good reputation so I wouldn't let their rating it highly count for much.

516.11.2015 18:56

Cnet's world wide rank is 145 out of 1000 most popular sites,that sure is some not very good rep..lol..

Back on topic
Change dns server setting in your modem/router to open dns,google or comodo.Doing so will mask your ip.

617.11.2015 01:41

Er, what?! Changing your DNS will do absolutely nothing of the sort; you'd need a VPN for that.

Edit -> Although changing your DNS is often very useful for bypassing various website restrictions by ISPs.

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 17 Nov 2015 @ 1:42

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