Texas Sues TV Makers For Taking Screenshots of What People Watch (bleepingcomputer.com)
- Reference: 0180398227
- News link: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/12/16/1758248/texas-sues-tv-makers-for-taking-screenshots-of-what-people-watch
- Source link: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/texas-sues-tv-makers-for-spying-on-users-selling-data-without-consent/
> The Texas Attorney General [2]sued five major television manufacturers , accusing them of illegally collecting their users' data by secretly recording what they watch using Automated Content Recognition (ACR) technology.
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> The lawsuits target Sony, Samsung, LG, and China-based companies Hisense and TCL Technology Group Corporation. Attorney General Ken Paxton's office also highlighted "serious concerns" about the two Chinese companies being required to follow China's National Security Law, which could give the Chinese government access to U.S. consumers' data.
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> According to complaints filed this Monday in Texas state courts, the TV makers can allegedly use ACR technology to capture screenshots of television displays every 500 milliseconds, monitor the users' viewing activity in real time, and send this information back to the companies' servers without the users' knowledge or consent.
[1] https://slashdot.org/~mprindle
[2] https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/texas-sues-tv-makers-for-spying-on-users-selling-data-without-consent/
Yet we are not allowed to take screenshots (Score:4, Insightful)
Because of "copy protection", just goes to show what the movie industry really cares about their "content", which is just a vehicle for advertising to attach to.
Re: (Score:2)
It sucks not having laws to protect your privacy.
But at least they don't send a picture every half-second, apparently they use a build-in Automated Content Recognition (ACR) technology.
Which to me means they 'only' collect the name of the content.
Makes me wonder how they would name your private recordings of you doing the neighbors wife.
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> Makes me wonder how they would name your private recordings of you doing the neighbors wife.
"Short-form content"
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> Color me skeptical, but I don't think the production house is dropping $100 million+ in some directors lap to make a movie because advertising.
For every ad-supported service, you bet it's about advertising. Netflix doesn't produce a show to put on their ad-supported tier without the advertisers wanting to know the reach of their ads. While I'm sure Netflix, Amazon, Sling, and everyone else produces metrics of what ads were inserted, reading from the display is an interesting way to cross-check the metrics.
That said, I have zero interest in participating. I want my display to be dumb as a bag of hammers.
Modern Life has turned me into a techno-luddite (Score:4, Insightful)
No, I will not buy your infernal glorified LCD monitor with tuner and internet added. Just like I wont' get an Echo or a Home Hub or whatever other bullshit the bullshit peddlers are peddling.
I still bitterly cling to my hot-lamp projector, it is as dumb as a fencepost and doesn't sell me out and in my setup throws a picture that's 7 feet side-to-side.
And if I find the AppleTV device I have is doing this sceenshooting business, it'll find out real quick how an Apple TV makes like a hockey puck. No ice, just concrete and blacktop.
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Those hot-lamp bulbs cost $500 every time they burn out, and they generate a LOT of heat. Other than that, the projectors are pretty cool.
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Plenty of modern laser projectors available with no smart features and they are better in every single way. Less heat, no more bulb replacements, better picture.
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[1]https://epson.com/q-series-pre... [epson.com]
Example. Epson, Panasonic, NEC, JVC, Sony all make good units.
[1] https://epson.com/q-series-premium-home-cinema-projectors
Re: (Score:2)
> Those hot-lamp bulbs cost $500 every time they burn out
Only for some brands. Panasonic lamps were ~$400, but they stopped making all their PJs so I abandoned Panasonic.
6 year on Epson now. Epson lamps are $120 and rated to 5000 hrs in eco mode for my model (normal mode is way too loud for my room)
> generate a LOT of heat
dissipated into the room's air and dealt with by the aircon
> Other than that, the projectors are pretty cool.
Most lifelike / cinemalike display I've yet used. On year 20 of this now, 14 with panasonic and 6 with Epson.
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> Only for some brands. Panasonic lamps were ~$400, but they stopped making all their PJs so I abandoned Panasonic.
> 6 year on Epson now. Epson lamps are $120 and rated to 5000 hrs in eco mode for my model (normal mode is way too loud for my room)
I run the cheap 43$ish ones from Amazon. They don't last as long as an Epson, but still get about 3 -4 years of viewing. They are cheaper in the long run but probably not as bright; however, I am not a videophile that obsesses over picture quality. Good enough is good enough at that price.
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My 17 years old Samsung 36" dumb but great TV, works with all the digital channels, has optical digital audio out, HDMI, antenna, SCART in, stopped working a couple of weeks ago.
Of course I know that not everyone has the skills to repair printed circuits but it was just GBP6.14 for a replacement set of electrolytic capacitors for the power supply and now it's working like new again.
Can the rest of the folks here satisfy my curiosity please? I've also repaired two monitors with the same fault, so, is blown e
Re: (Score:2)
> Those hot-lamp bulbs cost $500 every time they burn out, and they generate a LOT of heat. Other than that, the projectors are pretty cool.
They cost that much from the manufacturer. But if you can find the original source for the lamps, you'll find they are pretty much just the lamp with a fancy custom housing around it so you can avoid damaging the lamp during handling.
But all lamps are made by a third party, you can buy those lamps, but you have to be careful when changing them out because you have to disa
Re: (Score:2)
> And if I find the AppleTV device I have is doing this sceenshooting business, it'll find out real quick how an Apple TV makes like a hockey puck. No ice, just concrete and blacktop.
All AppleTVs currently out there do not. They lack any sort of hardware for doing content matching so Apple couldn't do it even if they wanted to. They'd have to screenshot and upload it to Apple HQ, and researchers would've discovered it by now if it did because such news would be perfect to ruin Apple's reputation.
For once this man has filed a lawsuit I agree with (Score:3, Insightful)
For once in my lifetime, I have finally seen a lawsuit this man has filed that I agree with. It is a severe invasion of privacy what ACR is doing. It should never have been allowed.
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It's a cool technology; Or it would be if the user could control it.
This thing takes screenshots 50 times a minute and can extract data like text shown on the screen.
It's freakin' cool, and I can think of a thousand neat uses for this if it would be 1. Sent to a local endpoint you configure in the menu. 2. An On-off switch you have to turn on, and off by default of course.
Instead the dumbasses who designed this system make it require an internet connection, and the data feed is sent to some asshole compa
This is Texas (Score:5, Insightful)
Texas: The fundamental right to privacy will be protected in Texas because owning a television does not mean surrendering your personal information to Big Tech or foreign adversaries.
Also Texas: [1]You can't own more than 6 dildos [onwardtexas.org] and if you aid someone in getting an abortion [2]we want your neighbors to snitch on you [wikipedia.org].
You know, because of the fundamental right to privacy.
[1] https://onwardtexas.org/trending/is-it-illegal-to-own-more-than-six-dildos-in-texas-yes-it-is/
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Heartbeat_Act
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I think this is posturing by Kenny. He's running for Senate and wants to seem like your friendly Senator not afraid to take on the big companies.
This will all quietly disappear after next year's campaigns are finished.
Re: (Score:2)
"You have the right to privacy, so long as whatever you are doing in private does not conflict with my religious ideals in any way whatsoever, such that it would be deemed a sinful act under catholic church published dogma."
"You are legally allowed to do sexual-like things, and in fact mandated to if adult; but only as done 100% in accordance with tradition and how god prescribes word for word in the bible. No toys. No porn. Only 1 human you are married to of the opposite sexes you two were born as that i
Oh-Oh (Score:1)
wait til they see what I watch on the computer!
And I just got rid of ads!!! (Score:4, Interesting)
I guess it's time to just pull it off the network completely.
Glad I didn't buy a new one. (Score:3)
Almost did on Black Friday.
One of the reasons I didn't was that I didn't think I could afford one that didn't spy, but it turns out those big name brands are some of the worst?? I figured Sony, Samsung and LG would be the safe brands. I never trusted TCL or Hisense, I'm sure they're connected to CCP servers all day.
And does this mean that Visio doesn't spy? I wanted to go with a different brand this time (replacing a Visio with a bad backlight array), and Visio has been running ads on the home screen, but I'll take ads over monitoring.
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I think the safest solution is to peer out your window, across the yard, and into your neighbor's home and watch whatever they're watching. No sound, but you can make up your own dialogue and sound effects! Way more fun and creative!
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You simply buy the TV and don't connect it to the internet at all. If you want to do initial updating of the TV's firmware, create a temporary guest network on your wireless and add the TV to it, then delete the network when you're done.
Use a separate streaming device for your streaming services. You could make one with a SBC and then watch the services via web browser to the TV if you want to get extreme with this.
Re:Glad I didn't buy a new one. (Score:5, Insightful)
> Almost did on Black Friday.
> One of the reasons I didn't was that I didn't think I could afford one that didn't spy, but it turns out those big name brands are some of the worst?? I figured Sony, Samsung and LG would be the safe brands. I never trusted TCL or Hisense, I'm sure they're connected to CCP servers all day.
> And does this mean that Visio doesn't spy? I wanted to go with a different brand this time (replacing a Visio with a bad backlight array), and Visio has been running ads on the home screen, but I'll take ads over monitoring.
Get a new TV and never, EVER let it connect to the network. If you need to stream on it, buy a separate box of some sort. Roku, AppleTV, or just an old laptop with HDMI on it. It's almost impossible to buy a spy-free TV these days, but keeping it from accessing the network still seems to be a safe bet. No telling how long before they determine it's "cheaper" for them to include an always on cellular modem in the base unit because too many have decided not to let them on the internet after purchase, but right now that's still a future problem.
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Careful not to supply Internet via Ethernet over HDMI to it. (HDMI 1.4+)
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Why is your TV spying on you somehow worse than your Roku, AppleTV, or whatever spying on you? The advantage of the external box is that you can upgrade it when it is no longer supported. I mean hell, if you trust Roku, just get a Roku TV...
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> Why is your TV spying on you somehow worse than your Roku, AppleTV, or whatever spying on you? The advantage of the external box is that you can upgrade it when it is no longer supported. I mean hell, if you trust Roku, just get a Roku TV...
I'm old. I prefer separation. Integrated is a shorter way of saying, "breaks quicker and you lose everything at the same time the first part breaks."
And I don't personally trust Roku, but there are a lot of people that do. Thus far Apple hasn't used its spying power to try and foist advertising on every moment of the experience, so I've stuck with my AppleTV boxes, though I refuse to use their "pay us for two decent shows and a bunch of dreck" monthly streaming service.
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Get a new TV and never, EVER let it connect to the network.
Be really really careful. Manufacturers keep coming up with more and more ways to get it just enough internet access to talk to home even if you don't want it too. Hidden cellular modems. New mesh networking protocols like Sidwalk. Bluetooth. Aggressive wifi autoconfig. Ethernet over HDMI. etc
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I am pretty sure they all spy on you now if connected to the internet. Some of them may be more obvious about it. Ideally you would get a TV that does not connect to the internet at all, Or turn the feature off, but A. It is almost impossible now, and B. Manufacturers are shady even if you turn the feature off.
You don't configure the WiFi: they will go into a loop searching for any AP they can connect to and grab any internet connection they can get to phone home, if possible; they'll especially try
TV's are so Blah! What? did the 1960's come back! (Score:2)
And the manufacturers are just making them worst by the day. But we all have an action we can take. Just stop buying their products.
One good use for Automated Content Recognition (Score:1)
Recognizing when there's an interruption to the program I'm watching so I can turn what is probably an ad into a silent black screen.
Sure, I may miss out on urgent weather bulletins or we-interrupt-this-program-for-a-major-news-bulletins, but at least I won't have to watch the ads.
I'm waiting for a TV that will include this ad-blocking technology without an unacceptable price. I'm also waiting for the heat death of the universe. I'm pretty sure I know which will happen first.
It's not 'secret' Ken (Score:2)
> ...accusing them of illegally collecting their users' data by secretly recording what they watch using Automated Content Recognition (ACR) technology.
This stuff is listed in the EULAs the customers agree to when they set up the TV. I mostly see it in the one that is associated with the "auto picture enhancement" setting, where the TV can adjust picture qualities to suit the content you are watching (movies, sports, etc). Good luck invalidating one of the most-abused tools in company belts.
Re: It's not 'secret' Ken (Score:2)
I purchased it used, your honor, never got presented with an EULA.
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EULA is part of the setup process. You'd need the previous owner to testify they didn't factory reset the TV before they sold it, as most people would to erase their streaming service credentials.
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EULAs can not legally apply to a minor, just have your neighbor's kid set it up.
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Are EULAs even legally binding?
Game Mode? (Score:2)
My TCL TV has a game mode that you can enable. They say it's for reducing lag and disables some "image enhancement," but I wonder if it also disables ACR? It certainly helps with audio sync when the audio doesn't run through the TV.
Supposedly I've also turned ACR off in the menus, and I've blocked their ad server, so I'm in better shape than average.
I will say that I really like the Roku interface. Even if you never connect it to the Internet, the interface for selecting inputs is really nice. I have fa
This is why my TV can't connect to the Internet (Score:3)
One of my TVs is a smart TV, with a built in Roku. I had to connect it to the Internet for initial setup, but after that, I blocked it at the router.
Everything I watch on that TV comes from an external Roku box. Clearly, Roku knows what I watch, but there is no need for Hisense to also know.
Internet (Score:2)
How do they send the screenshots if you don't hook up the TV to your Internet?
Re: (Score:2)
The same route you use to receive programs?
For the billionaires (Score:2)
Translation: China is watching our porn habits, we need to stop China spying on us.
Abbot and Paxton aren't protecting the rights of fellow Texans with this law. They're protecting the power of billionaires to create rage-bait propaganda and tell Texans what to think.
They are distributing pictures of what I watch? (Score:1, Flamebait)
Arrest them for distributing kiddie porn!
Re: They are distributing pictures of what I watch (Score:2)
Yeah this guy right here officer!
Re: (Score:2)
Isn't Texas one of those states that requires ID verification to watch adult content? If so, you might actually have a valid case here. Watching someone else's porn without consent AND with no ID verification is probably a double whammy in Texas law.