Is Your TV Watching YOU?

Just as the dust settled with the Facebook vs Senate hearings revealing how our data’s being used to bolster marketing tactics (specifically, re-targeting,) now, another contender for our data appears to be watching us watch TV.

Samba TV collects data on 13.5 million TV viewers in order to make personalized show recommendations. Samba has contracts with about a dozen TV makers including Sony, Toshiba and more, for the rights to install software on those sets.

What does that mean for you?
ACR (Automatic Content Recognition) delivers “essential TV insights” to recommend shows you might want to watch based upon your habits. Initially sounds great, until the tracking follows you off the screen into other areas of your life – in your office, in line at McDonalds or at the airport when you travel. Samba can determine how many connected devices you have in your home and target those with ads.

Be certain to read the fine print in any of these apps and devices to ensure you’re protecting your sensitive data. And if this intrusion proves too much, you can always send your outmoded devices to Ship n Destroy for secure destruction of laptops, servers and smart devices.