Web Team : Delhi
People love to watch TV and they are with us
for a long period. They have been changed and keep on changing with technology.
Earlier we have the dumb TVs that were operated with remote and a cable
connection. Now we all love to have the smart TVs in our home and office if you
also want to purchase a new one must check The Best Smart LED TV in India.
It is one of the most used products in our
home, but do we know that is it completely safe to use a smart TV. Just like
Laptops and mobile devices, it is also connected to the internet and also just
like them, this can also be hacked and create an unwanted danger for us?
There are so many cases that prove that smart
TVs are capable of watching us and also they can spy on us and our private
information is not safe in them. But the biggest question is how it is possible
that they can misuse our information right? It's just a TV.
Without wasting any
time let’s find out how they can spy on us and our private lives.
Smart TVs can Spy on you-
When we talk about smart TV spying on you, it
is not like they can just watch you, but like real spying CIA and MI5 stuff.
They can watch you without even knowing you. Just like any other device it also
runs on internet connection and with the internet, someone may be watching you
on the other side of the camera of your laptop and your TV as well.
This has been seen in most of the Smart TVs
that have the inbuilt camera in them.
There is a famous smart TV company named
Visio. It has also been charged for 2 million dollars fine last year for
collecting the information of its users.
Its interactivity features allow you to
provide the content based on old watching patterns and to recommend to you what
you should watch next. It was fine if this has stopped here only, but it moved
one step further as it started collecting of other devices as well which were
connected to the same Wi-Fi.
For example, if you love to watch the cooking
shows, be prepared to get the information on your mobile devices and the updates
of your favorite show without your knowledge.
All the devices from the same Wi-Fi
connection, either it is a laptop, mobile phones or PCs the data of other apps
as well, the Visio started to collect. This was used by the company to have
complete knowledge of their customer's choices and preferences.
Smart App Scandal-
Samba is the company who’s app was used in the
Smart TVs of famous brands like TCL, Sony, Phillips and many more. The primary
function of this app is to collect the information and supply it to the
manufacturers because they could use the information on advertising purposes
etc.
This was even mentioned in the privacy policy
of the app that will collect the information from your IP address of other
connected devices as well. Just by clicking on accepting the privacy policy,
you just allow them to collect your data.
This is why you always view the ads on your
devices which you have recently searched or studied about. This is the biggest
reason for online advertising become so effective these days.
But the problem here is not the collection of
data but to store it, the companies store all the data from different IP's and
hackers could easily do the hacking at a huge level of different people in the
entire world. This is a threat especially for the people who have inbuilt
cameras in their smart TVs.
Recently a famous personality from Gujarat has
been scammed by this, their smart TV’s camera allows hackers to record the
private video of them and they do not even know about them. In exchange for the
video, hackers demanded bit coins worth of Rs 40 Lakhs.
What you can do to stop your TV to spy
on you?
There are some ways that you can do to keep
yourself safe from all this hacking and spying your private life.
Get a Dumb TV
You can always get a dumb TV that is only used
with the help of cable connection, Dish TV, etc. These are TVs simply without
an internet connection or those who do not have the option to connect to the
internet. There are a disadvantage and advantage in buying or using a dumb
TV.
The advantage is there is no chance that
anyone can spy on you the disadvantage is you have to use your fingers more as
these TVs do not understand the voice commands.
Make your Smart TV Dumb
If you do not want to purchase a new dumb TV,
or you already have purchased the Smart TV. You can also make it dumb anytime
you want.
It is very easy to do so by just turning off
the internet and use only the TV which is provided by the cable TV connection
or dish etc. The benefit of doing this is nobody can hack your TV and your
private life but you still can enjoy the TV experience from the great audio and
video quality.
By turning the Wi-Fi off you won't be able to
access the video streaming platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime, HULU, etc. But
you can still use them by installing a streaming box like Google Chromecast and
you will be able to use all of them again without any risk.
Turn off Snooping Features-
Users can always turn off the snooping option;
every smart TV has a different way to turn this option off. Like, In LG Smart
TV turns off the home promotion feature. In Roku to just turn off the smart TV
experience feature. In Visio TV you just have to turn off the viewing data on
that.
These are the ways by following them you can
easily keep yourself safe. There are so many cases where smart TV spying helps
the govt. or the police. But with the change in technology, the threat of
misusing the information by these also increased.
Post a Comment