There’s a simple reason why your new smart TV was so affordable: It’s collecting and selling your data

Via Business Insider

  • The vast majority of televisions available today are “smart” TVs, with internet connections, ad placement, and streaming services built in.
  • Despite the added functionality, TV prices are lower than ever — especially from companies like TCL and Vizio, which specialize in low-cost, high-tech smart TVs.
  • There’s a simple reason that smart TV prices are so low: some TV makers collect user data and sell it to third-parties, which can offset the cost.

black friday shopping target tvs

Massive TVs with razor-thin frames, brilliant image quality, and streaming services built-in are more affordable than ever thanks to companies like Vizio and TCL.

If you want a 65-inch 4K smart TV with HDR capability, one can be purchased for below $500 — a surprisingly low price for such a massive piece of technology, nonetheless one that’s likely to live in your home for years before you upgrade.

But that low price comes with a caveat most people don’t realize: Some manufacturers collect data about users, then sell that data to third-parties. That data can include what type of shows you watch, which ads you watch, your approximate location, and more.

TCL P-series, Roku TV ad
The Roku TV interface on TCL’s smart TVs comes with a prominent ad placement on the home screen.
TCL/Roku

 

A recent interview on The Verge’s podcast with Vizio CTO Bill Baxter did a great job illuminating exactly how this works.

“This is a cutthroat industry. It’s a 6% margin industry,” Baxter said. “The greater strategy is I really don’t need to make money off of the TV. I need to cover my cost.”

More specifically, companies like Vizio don’t need to make money from every TV they sell.

Smart TVs can be sold at or near cost to consumers — which is great for consumers — because Vizio is able to monetize those TVs through data collection, advertising, and selling direct-to-consumer entertainment (movies, etc.) — which is less great for consumers.

Or, as Baxter put it: “It’s not just about data collection. It’s about post-purchase monetization of the TV.”

And there are a few different ways to monetize those TVs post-purchase.

TCL P-series, Roku TV ads
On TCL’s Roku TVs, users can opt out of the full scope of ad tracking. How much you’re able to block yourself from data tracking varies by TV manufacturer.
Roku/TCL

 

“You sell some movies, you sell some TV shows, you sell some ads, you know. It’s not really that different than The Verge website,” he said.

It’s those additional forms of revenue that helps make the large, beautiful smart TVs from companies like Vizio and TCL so affordable.

Without that revenue stream, Baxter said, consumers would be paying more upfront cost. “We’d collect a little bit more margin at retail to offset it.”

The exchange is fascinating and worth listening to in full — check it out right here.

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Eyas
Eyas

I don’t want anything smart in my home. I don’t need competition.

Pequiste
Pequiste

Throw out the Big Brother/Fahrenheit 451 devices(s) while you still can.
Soon they will be compulsory.

*With the exquisite Julie Christie.

Apex Predator
Apex Predator

Novel solution— Don’t connect it to your internet? Although I do foresee a time in the near future where it will have to ‘activated’ and constantly connected to function.

Anonymous
Anonymous

There is one thing that stops these smart TV’s dead. Dont connect them to your network. Get a chrome cast separately if you want to stream. When they move to mandated activation, connect it, activate it then remove it from the network . I’ve no doubt that they will eventually require an internet connection to function. Hopefully, I’ll be dead by then or will blind enough not to be able to watch TV.

Richard
Richard

Get a Chromecast? Are you kidding? Who do you think is the number one at data mining?

Guy White
Guy White

While H. G Rickover was alive, computers were disallowed in his enginerooms. Even electronic calculators were exceptional. He wanted his sailors to be smarter than the machines that they operated.

The presumption of the universal acceptance of broadcast television is troubling. Read Jonathan Zittrain’s The Future of The Internet and How to Stop It.

Sam Dennis
Sam Dennis

I have avoided the problem by not connecting my ‘smart’ TV to the Internet.

“You can fool some of the people, some of the time; but not all the people all of the time.”

Sam Dennis
Sam Dennis

Can we blame Al Gore for all this violation of privacy by his Internet?

KeyserSusie
KeyserSusie

An anthem of those of my age. And many here are doing so.

Blow up your T.V., throw away your paper
Move to the country, build you a home
Plant a little garden, eat a lot of peaches
Try to find Jesus on your own…

grace country pastor

I love that song, thanks for posting… ?

KeyserSusie
KeyserSusie

I do too – plus I have loved enough level headed dancers to know there is merit in it.

Jerry Ross
Jerry Ross

Be careful about what devices you connect to these TV’s if you don’t want them to transmit data back home. Not connecting the TV itself to your network is not enough. If you have an Internet enabled device connected to it, the TV can make use of Ethernet over HDMI to connect out to the Internet.

Stucky

That ain’t nuthin.

At the CES (consumer electronics) last week in Vegas —– Kohler unveiled a SIX THOUSAND DOLLAR SHITTER!! It’s called a Numi. It features;

— a self-opening and closing lid so you never have to touch the toilet seat

— a self-cleaning bidet with adjustable controls for temperature and water pressure

— heating elements to keep your toes and tush toasty

— an illuminated panel for nighttime rendezvous

— a built-in speaker system that connects to a remote docking station to ensure only you know exactly what you’re doing in there

— and a deodorizing element that sucks air from the bowl through a charcoal filter.

— it has a …. wait for it …. TOUCHSCREEN that you can use to set to your specifications.

— and it connects to Google Assistant!!!!

Man, sometimes I hate being poor. What I could do with a shitter like that!!

https://youtu.be/R8jCP_-oBg

PlatoPlubius

I’m sure with new software it will be able to analyze your stool and urea. How nice! Not!
Throw that shit in the dumpster!

Suds
Suds

Phase II…(duece)… sensors to ANALyze what you leave behind, to gather data about what you have eaten, to sell to marketing firms, that sell to the food industry, digestive health product mfrs. The possibilities are endless.
That abbreviation doesn’t stand for manufacturers, by the way.
Use your imagination. Caveat emptor.

Buzz
Buzz

So who is dumb enough to connect their TV to the internet?

Nanky52

They can “mine my data”…what they will find is that I watch Gunsmoke, Virginian, Walker Texas Ranger, old Star Trek Shows, Frasier and very old western movies from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s….when I watch tv that is, which is infrequently. I don’t watch Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Roku…and when I get tired of Comcast…I will cancel and watch my old VCR movies on my dual state of the artl dvd/vcr player (I have two in case one craps out)…I like to read…books…not Kindle…They mine more data from your credit cards, health care and NSA recording your texts, emails and phone calls and putting them in the repository in Bluffdale, Utah than they will every get from your tv. In a word, your data is constantly being mined every time you swipe your credit card or text a message or log onto social media. Dumb article.

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