UK Edition
Vizio smart TVs tracked what viewers were watching without consent
One of the biggest makers of smart televisions has been found to be tracking users' viewing habits without them knowing.
Vizio has been fined $2.2 million (£1.8m) after the US consumer watchdog discovered the company had been using content recognition software to track viewers without asking for permission.
The tracking technology, called automated content recognition, can recognise what is being watched on the television at any given moment. Vizio gathered "as many as 100 billion data points a day from millions of TVs".
Vizio, which has sold more than 11 million smart TVs since 2010, was found to have been sharing the "mountain of data" with independent companies such as advertisers and those that monitor audience engagement and habits. It does not sell its TVs in the UK.
"Consumers didn't know that while they were watching their TVs, Vizio was watching them," the US Federal Trade Commission said. "The generic way the company described that feature – for example, 'enables program offers and suggestions' – didn’t give consumers the necessary heads-up to know that Vizio was tracking their TV’s every flicker."
The company began using the tracking software in its products in 2014. Around this time it also added the software to older models, already in people's homes, through an update, the Commission said.
"Vizio then turned that mountain of data into cash by selling consumers’ viewing histories to advertisers and others. And let’s be clear: We’re not talking about summary information about national viewing trends," the Commission said. "The company provided consumers’ IP addresses to data aggregators, who then matched the address with an individual consumer or household."
Vizio said the data it stored and shared wasn't personally identifiable and didn't include viewers' names or contact information. But it did include sensitive information such as sex, age, income, marital status, household size and education.
"The Federal Trade Commission has made clear that all smart TV makers should get people's consent before collecting and sharing television viewing information, and Vizio is now leading the way," said Jerry Huang, a lawyer with the company.
As well as paying a hefty fine, Vizio has been ordered to delete all information collected before March 2016.
"It’s wrong that customers had no idea it was happening, companies have to make more of an effort to be clear about what data they collect and how it’s used," said Daniel Nesbitt, research director at Big Brother Watch. "Citizens should always be asked before their data is collected, they have to be able to understand how their information is being used and say no to it if they don’t feel comfortable."