GoKawiil
Tech News
A Northeastern University study found that smart TVs running Samsung, Vizio and Roku operating systems continued transmitting data to automatic content recognition (ACR) servers even after users disabled tracking in settings. Researchers tested 12 smart TVs across eight operating systems from 10 manufacturers, running nearly 6,000 controlled experiments to monitor network traffic to and from ACR endpoints.
A comparison of smart TV software support finds Hisense's VIDAA OS, used mainly in Europe, now backed by a pledge of up to eight years of updates, while Hisense TVs sold in the US typically run Android TV, Fire TV, Google TV or Roku TV instead, leaving support up to those platform owners. Roku, Vizio and Insignia don't publish fixed support periods for their own-brand TVs, though Insignia's use of Amazon's Fire OS implies at least four years of updates based on Amazon's own device policy.
A Gamers Nexus investigation accused LG TVs of covertly recording audio and monitoring viewing habits, sparking backlash even after LG issued a response. However, reporting shows this kind of automatic content recognition tracking, which fingerprints audio and video to identify what's being watched, is used industry-wide, not just by LG, and users typically consent to it through dense terms of service.