Smart TV devices betray the TV behavior of their users – nonstop and unnoticed. In the US, the resale of viewer data is already on the television market. Does that happen in Germany?
Smart TVs collect nonstop information about their users. For example, TV stations can see how long people watch a program and when they leave it. “This is a bottomless pit,” says Peter Siering, who researched for the computer and technology magazine c’t what information smart TV devices reveal, with whom they communicate and what influence they can take on it.
“It’s amazing that when you set up a TV, it connects to 50 servers on the Internet.” Already during the channel search, the technical experts registered a communication between the TV set and the server, after which the digital chat continued cheerfully: “Every push on the remote control was transmitted, every access to the Internet.”
That means the red button on the remote
Particularly vulnerable to telltale signals is what makes the TV so smart: With the Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV ( HbbTV ) broadcast programs can be complemented by interactive content – for example, to make media libraries accessible, offer program information or, in the case of Shopping channels, even for orders.
Users recognize HbbTV offers by an indication in the television picture that further information about the pressing of the red button is available.
Particularly negative in the c’t investigation were the programs of the ARD, which use a common HbbTV offer: “If you go deeper with a red button, they transfer every keystroke to the HbbTV server.” This should allow the operators, to play individual user sessions. “
“Do not track” no option
The television viewer can not really counteract this. Although most televisions offer the ability to change privacy settings, but only to a very limited extent. The c’t testers found out that the option “Do not follow” had no visible influence. “Here, the institutions are apparently over the desire of the user.”
The problem of permanent data transmission on smart TVs is not new, but largely unknown. “With a Smart TV, people do not assume that data will be collected and passed on,” said the Internet expert Jörg Schieb in a blog entry on the subject. “I’m sure that most Smart TV viewers should not be concerned or right.”
Data sales soon in Germany?
In the US, collecting, evaluating and reselling user data has become the real business of smart TVs. While TVs are getting cheaper, manufacturers are earning money by selling user data.
That this will be possible in Germany without further doubt, Michael Gundall, television expert at the consumer center of Rhineland-Palatinate: “The German data protection laws are relatively strict.” When using smart TVs, he recommends that the terms of use not unread to accept, but to limit if possible. Apart from that, everyone has to ask himself whether he wants to take advantage of Smart TV or not.
Smart alternative for more privacy
An alternative would be not even to buy a smart TV set, but to stay with the old TV, which does not yet support the online service HbbTV. Standard junkies who do not want to miss out on offers such as Maxdome, Prime or Netflix can access the Internet with the help of TV sticks or streaming boxes .
Without the transfer it is not possible. But at least Apple advertises only to capture as much as is really necessary. And with TV sticks from Google or Amazon , it can be consoled that after all, you know who the data is shared with.