"Did you know that whenever you turn on your smart TV, you invite an unseen guest to watch it with you? These days, most mainstream TVs use automatic content recognition (ACR), a type of ad-tracking technology that collects data on everything you watch and sends it to a central database. Manufacturers then use this information to understand your viewing habits and deliver highly targeted ads."
"According to The Markup, ACR can capture and identify up to 7,200 images per hour, or approximately two images every second. This extensive tracking provides valuable insights for marketers and content distributors, as it reveals connections between viewers' personal information and their preferred content. By "personal information," I mean email addresses, IP addresses -- and even your physical street address."
Most mainstream smart TVs run automatic content recognition (ACR) that continuously identifies on-screen content and sends data to a central database. ACR captures screenshots—up to about two images per second or 7,200 images per hour—and matches them against a large media and ad database. Manufacturers and advertisers use those matches, combined with personal identifiers such as email addresses, IP addresses, and even street addresses, to profile viewers and deliver highly targeted ads and recommendations. Advertisers spent an estimated $18.6 billion on smart TV ads in 2022, creating strong incentives to continue and expand this tracking. Disabling ACR can protect privacy but often requires effort.
Read at ZDNET
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