VIZIO · AUTOMATIC CONTENT RECOGNITION · FTC

The FTC said 11 million Vizio televisions collected second-by-second viewing information, including content from external devices.

Screen content → viewing history → IP address / aggregation → advertising and cross-device targeting

In 2017, the FTC and New Jersey alleged that Vizio televisions captured second-by-second information about what consumers watched. The system did not only observe Vizio apps: the FTC said it could recognize content from cable and over-the-air broadcasts as well as set-top boxes, streaming devices and DVD players.

The FTC said viewing data was associated with IP addresses and supplied to data aggregators. Those datasets could be supplemented with demographic information such as age, sex, income, marital status, household size, education and home ownership and used for advertising and cross-device targeting. Vizio agreed to pay $2.2 million and obtain affirmative consent for collection and sharing.

Why it matters: Ownership of the screen did not necessarily mean ownership of the information the screen generated about its owner.

Primary source: FTC — Vizio smart-TV settlement

WHY THIS LIBRARY EXISTS

This page preserves the anecdote and its caveats separately from the shorter Why Privacy Matters explainer. The goal is to keep the argument readable without hiding the receipts.