Is your television becoming smarter than you? Federal Bureau of Investigation thinks so.
Based on the report, the FBI recently released a warning to all Smart TV owners to be aware of the things they say or show in front of their televisions. This is due to the result of their investigation finding out that most Smart TVs can be used as a 'gateway' for hackers to infiltrate your personal information that you input or accidentally say or do in front of your TV.
"Hackers can also take control of your unsecured TV. At the low end of the risk spectrum, they can change channels, play with the volume, and show your kids inappropriate videos. In a worst-case scenario, they can turn on your bedroom TV's camera and microphone and silently cyberstalk you," posted by FBI Portland.
With this fact, a lot of Smart TV owners were worried that they might experience the same TV stalking or that they've already given too much information on their favorite television that was already useful for hackers.
Though this sounds creepy for users out there, the act of TV stalking seemed to be no longer new for experts and TV companies. Here's why.
TV Spying is Going on Over the Years
On the year 2017 also starts the era of TV stalking. Vizio claimed as America's best-selling TV was also declared at the time as the 'spying TV.' This is due to the investigation of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that the TV manufacturer had been getting personal information out of their 11 million sets of Smart TVs. This resulted in Vizio paying a $2.2 million settlement penalty that was divided into FTC and New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs.
The same story goes to Samsung in 2015, on which they detailed that every information that users say or do in front of their Smart TV was being transferred to a third-party company that would convert the speech to text.
"Please be aware that if your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party through your use of Voice Recognition," Samsung posted in its SmartTV privacy policy.
Since a lot of other reports also entail TV stalking as one of the most used 'gateway' for getting information, TV owners must think of things that they can do to counter-attack these illegal activities, and here are some.
Stop your Smart TV from Spying on You
Know the Features of your TV
If your TV is getting information from you, you must also get information from your TV. Most Smart TV owners do not meticulously research about their TV. However, this is one step to curb out the TV stalking.
Know its features and try to understand how your TV works. Does it have a microphone or camera? Will it record even it's not turned on? Will my information be transferred to third parties? All of this information can be accessed in your TV guide, or you can ask the company yourself.
Cut the Camera
Do not literally cut your TV camera, of course. Check your device for its microphone and camera settings. Try to figure out how to stop it from recording, or just simply turn it off. If you think that information might still get away, put black tape over the eye of your camera.
Stop it from Snooping
As explained, all the things that your TV can do might already be listed down on your TV guide, you just have to read it thoroughly. Smart TV has an automatic content recognition that you may turn off or lessened down to stop your TV from getting 'too much' information.
Try the 'Dumb TV'
As funny as it sounds, the step of choosing 'less smart' TVs compared to the ones you have now is a great step to stop the TV stalking. If your TV cannot connect to the Internet, no one will snoop on your information and sell it to third parties. Now, that's much easier.
