Vizio Inc. is in some hot water for allegedly collecting the viewing histories of 11 million smart televisions without users' consent. And now, the company has been ordered to pay US$2.2 million to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to settle the case.
According to the FTC, Vizio has agreed to pay the settlement fee regarding charges that the company installed software on its TVs that allowed it to collect viewing data without customer's being aware of it. Reportedly, the smart TVs could capture second-by-second information about video displayed on the smart TV, including video from consumer cable, broadband, set-top box, DVD, over-the-air broadcasts, and streaming devices. Vizio could supposedly append specific demographic information to the viewing data, like sex, age, income, marital status, household size, educational level, home ownership, and household value, and reportedly sold this information to third parties who used it for purposes like targeted advertising. While consumers were aware of the smart "suggestions" the TV platform could provide, they were reportedly not informaed about the viewing data that could be collected.
As part of the court order, which found the tracking without consent "unfair and deceptive, and in violation of the FTCAct and New Jersey consumer protection laws," Vizio must disclose and obtain affirmative express consent for its data collection and sharing, and has been ordered not to misrepresent the privacy, security, or confidentiality of the consumer information that's collected.
Vizio has also been ordered to delete data collected before March 1, 2016, and implement a comprehensive data privacy program and biennial assessments of the program.
The US$2.2 million payment includes US$1.5 million to the FTC and US$1 million to the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs.
"Vizio is pleased to reach this resolution with the FTC and the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs," says Jerry Huang, General Counsel for Vizio. "Going forward, this resolution sets a new standard for best industry privacy practices for the collection and analysis of data collected from today's Internet-connected televisions and other home devices. The ACR program never paired viewing data with personally identifiable information such as name or contact information, and the Commission did not allege or contend otherwise. Instead, as the Complaint notes, the practices challenged by the government related only to the use of viewing data in the 'aggregate' to create summary reports measuring viewing audiences or behaviours.
"Today," he continues, "the FTC has made clear that all smart TV makers should get people's consent before collecting and sharing television viewing information, and Vizio now is leading the way."
Vizio says it has already addressed the concerns by updating online and onscreen disclosures, and reminding viewers that they have the ability to turn the feature on or off.
In an interesting piece entitled "Most smart TVs are tracking you - Vizio just got caught," The Verge suggests that most other TV manufacturers are guilty of doing the same thing - only they leave that feature turned off my default whereas Vizio left it on. "For people who own other TVs and streaming boxes..." reads the article, "those devices are very likely still tracking your TV habits in one way or another, and they probably aren't as clear about it as Vizio now has to be."
In most, if not all cases, however, any tracking capability can, it seems, be turned off. It's just a matter of browsing through your smart TV's settings - or other smart devices, for that matter - to turn them off.
Data mining is a huge industry - companies can get details about your personal life through everything from smart devices, to mobile apps, Web searches, and more. It's all about being smart, checking the settings of your devices, and being mindful of the products you use and services and apps you download.
This isn't the first case of the FTC cracking down on privacy issues, and it likely won't be the last.