(Image source from: Your smart television is spying on you)
After a day's toil, you return to the comforts of your own bedroom, turn on the television, do some pillow talk with your partner, set on the alarm and snooze off, all in the privacy of your home or so you think.
Well, for your information, you are not alone, even when you think you are, for there is someone who is constantly keeping a beady eye on your every move. It knows everything you say or do, maybe some of your most intimate secrets too. Sounds spooky? Well, it is hair-raising, but then it's scarily true – you are being watched. And it's your TV that is actually spying on you.
Just last week, an IT consultant from US, discovered that his flat-screen television, which had been occupying a corner of his living room, was secretly invading his family's privacy.
On probing his LG device, Jason Huntley noticed that his TV only featured targeted adverts for cars and Knorr stock cubes, based on the programmes he had been watching.
Curious, he decides to monitor information that his smart TV was sending and receiving, using his laptop that revealed all the data being sucked out of his TV set. And his findings were nothing, but alarming.
He discovered that details of every show he watched, and every button he pressed on his remote was sent back to LG's corporate headquarters in South Korea.
There, the electronics company was using such customers’ data to make money. “A promotional video shown to commercial clients suggested that data was being used to provide ‘the ad experience you have always dreamed of’,” said Daily Mail.
Most worrying of all, the TV transmitted data about contents of his private digital video collection, camcorder footage of family celebrations containing images of his wife and two young children.
Huntley reported his finding in a blog that picked up by mainstream news outlets and LG announced a probe.
‘Customer privacy is a top priority,’ the firm said. ‘We are looking into reports that certain viewing information on LG smart TVs was shared without consent.’
We believe, Huntley’s scary finding is just the tip of the iceberg. There is more to all of our television sets than meets the eye. Beware!
Image Source: The Daily Mail
AW: Suchorita Dutta Choudhury
