Attorney General Paxton Sues Five Major TV Companies, Including Some with Ties to the CCP, for Spying on Texans
texasattorneygeneral.gov
Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed suit against five major television companies for spying on Texans by secretly recording what consumers watch in their own homes.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/51755511

Lawsuits

These companies have been unlawfully collecting personal data through Automated Content Recognition (“ACR”) technology. ACR in its simplest terms is an uninvited, invisible digital invader. This software can capture screenshots of a user’s television display every 500 milliseconds, monitor viewing activity in real time, and transmit that information back to the company without the user’s knowledge or consent. The companies then sell that consumer information to target ads across platforms for a profit. This technology puts users’ privacy and sensitive information, such as passwords, bank information, and other personal information at risk.

  • wjrii@lemmy.worldEnglish
    8·
    18 hours ago

    I guess even a broken fascist clock is correct twice a day. I almost imagine the last career lawyer in Austin desperately trying to figure out how to cram culture war bullshit into an actual legitimate consumer issue (the secret ingredient is… xenophobia!)…

    …or somebody just told Kenny boy that the TV knows what porn he watched last night.

    • Pika@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      6·
      17 hours ago

      Yeah, it’s quite disappointing to read the suit and see that the main purpose behind is because they don’t like the fact that Chinese companies are collecting this data.

      As if it’s not a problem that US-based companies are doing it as well.

  • Pika@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    3·
    17 hours ago

    I mean, sounds good in concept, but chances are as part of their usage agreement of it, he consented to a privacy policy that more or less allows it.

    Shouldn’t be allowed, but until there’s a law put in place that forbids it. Technically everything that was done is legal.

    Like for example, I own a Samsung TV and the first thing you see when you turn the damn thing on is a privacy policy/terms of service agreement followed by signing into a Samsung account. If you deny that privacy policy, the TV turns off.

    This is a quote from their current privacy policy.

    Information about your usage of the Services, including how, when, and for how long you use the Services; and • Viewing information, such as the networks, channels and programs viewed on the Services, including favorites, most recently viewed, watch list and hidden channels, as well as the amount of time spent viewing them.

    Like, I’m glad that they’re trying to fight it, but legal-wise, you agreed for that collection by hitting accept, They need to attack the system that is allowing said collection in the first place in order to do anything about it.