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Apologies up front; this is playing out in Dutch media and there do not seem to be English sources available. Nevertheless, I thought the following would be of interest to SN:
Philips TVs are manufactured by TP Vision. Recently, TP Vision announced that it would include more ads on its (Philips-branded) smart-tvs. Comment by Paulo Lopez of TP Vision to the media:
"We know very much about viewing behaviour. Which channels are being watched, which apps are being used. Based on that, we can make ads more relevant in the future." (translation mine).
Well that did cause a few ripples, amongst others with the data protection agency in the Netherlands. They already slapped TP Vision on the wrist back in 2013 for doing basically this. Now the data protection agency is starting another investigation. Moreover, tech-heads also noticed and kicked up a bit of a sh*tstorm at popular Dutch tech site Tweakers.net: more ads, warning, with 555 and 133 comments respectively (on a site where 100+ comments is a lot).
Do you know of any other brands that engage in such sleazy behaviour? And: would it be possible to block the ads while retaining the smart functionality (assuming a user who wants that), when the TV would try to detect/prevent that?
[Ed. Note: All I found in English is a press release from Improve Digital, the advertising company. Typical PR language there.]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Appalbarry on Saturday January 28 2017, @02:17AM
At this point we're all surrounded on all sides by media streams that examine everything that we say or do, and tailor advertising streams to match some model of who we are. I'd be more concerned with the ones that you never, ever notice because the whole thing has become so ubiquitous.
We're now approaching the point where the average person can't begin to understand how many ways their being tracked and monitored, much less how much of what passes over their screens is actually trying to influence them.
Oh for the good old days when an ad was an ad, and a program was a program, and you could tell the difference, and when advertisers could only rely on crude measures of viewership to try and target you.
(Just to save time a) I NEVER watch ads! 2) Ad-Block! 3) Noscript! 4) Something else! 5) Ads don't influence me! 6) I only read books you insensitive clod!)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 28 2017, @02:37AM
You forgot #7: you're a liar!! Read this didn't ya?
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Saturday January 28 2017, @03:20AM
"(Just to save time a) I NEVER watch ads! 2) Ad-Block! 3) Noscript! 4) Something else! 5) Ads don't influence me! 6) I only read books you insensitive clod!)"
Don't have a television, smart or otherwise. We had one that collected dust for at least two years, and never turned on. The wife finally gave it away. I had considered using it for a monitor at one point, at another point, I offered to hook it up to her computer for monitor duty. But, she finally gave it away.
She has her computer, I have mine. Ad-block, noscript, and adservers blocked on the router.
I still see an occassional advertisement. I guess she sees more than I do. But, neither of us is washed away by a constant stream of advertising, all day, every day.
Obviously, I never found out whether I was capable of blocking the advertising and snooping capabilities of the television that she gave away, as it was never hooked up to the network. There was no set-top box with the television, we just used an antenna with it when it was in use.
Best advice for intrusive snooping devices? Don't buy them. Maybe I'm just an eccentric old man, but we simply don't need any device that reports back to a manufacturer, distributor, advertising agency, or government agency how we are using that device. We just don't need them.
Cell phones? Wife insists that she needs her cell phone. I've tried to help her to configure Android to not be so damned nosy, but she insists on having her email and Facefook on the phone. At least she doesn't install apps all the time. But, email and facefook is plenty snoopy enough. Shared contacts lists tell snoopers plenty.
My own cell phone? It rides around in the glove compartment of the car. I don't even pay for the pay-as-you-go monthly service. It's there for emergencies. If I wreck the car, I can call 911 to tell them that I'm lying at the bottom of the ravine at the Saline River Relief, and that there is an alligator trying to get in the car. (That did, in fact, happen to a lady about two months ago.)
(Score: 3, Interesting) by ShadowSystems on Saturday January 28 2017, @04:19AM
Back when I could still see to watch TV in the first place, I got rather S&FTired of the crap they showed.
I watched one last episode of Star Trek on channel 40 & then turned the TV off for a year.
Other than using it to watch VHS movies on the VCR & as a 2nd monitor on my computer, I didn't use it to watch TV at all.
A year later I turned it back on to see if anything had changed, if the programming landscape had improved enough to make it worth watching.
Imagine my disgust when it was still channel 40 & The. Exact. Same. Episode. Of. Star. Trek.
I shut the tv off, unplugged it, & sold it on Craig's List.
Except for movies on my computer, I've not done anything that "required" a TV since.
Now that I'm blind & can get no enjoyment out of the boobtube anyway^, I'm rather glad I gave the damned thing up.
^: When 99% of everything on the TV is a visual item that requires excessive transcription to follow, plus the "laugh track" that triggers you to be bombarded with chortling idiots for things that don't make sense (what just happened that was so funny?), the general lack of a Descriptive Audio Service on any but a few channels of dubious quality, there's really no reason for a blind person to bother turning on a TV.
We can't see the special effects, the car crashes, the nifty spaceships, the cute engineer with the spot of grease on her nose (Kaylee is a hawttie!), we can't tell why the slapstick is so funny, & unless either the show includes a DAS stream for us to tune to or we convince a sighted person to sit there & transcribe *everything* & *in real time*, it's all just a confusing mess.
If you want to get an inkling of what I mean, go turn your TV on, tune it to a show you've never seen before, then cover the set with a completely opaque blanket so you can't see what's happening.
You can listen to it all you like, you're just not allowed to SEE any of it to know what's going on.
Why did that thing just explode? What was the thing that exploded? Was anyone hurt? Why are those people shooting at each other? Is that a LightSabre I just heard? A canned laugh track spraying fake chuckles over something you can't figure out what was so funny...
It all amounts to a disgust of the TV show, theater movie, or anything else that's not got a running transcription so you can follow along.
Thus I agree with you whole heartedly on the "give up the TV" line of thought.
I came to the conclusion over a decade ago that there wasn't anything worth watching anymore.
I've heard many suggestions to see this show or that, but every time I fire up Youtube to view the pilot episode, I'm broadsided by the utter lack of DAS to tell me WTF is going on.
"Smart" TV's are just stupid.
I could already do that simply by hooking the TV to my computer & streaming movies to it.
If I could still see to GAF about doing it, Netflix to the HTPC does the same thing, plus it saves me from buying an over priced "Smart" TV that spies on me, needs security updates, & can BSOD itself at the push of an update.
*Shakes a palsied fist*
Dang you Whippersnappers!
Now get off my lawn!
=-Jp
(Score: 1) by anubi on Saturday January 28 2017, @06:55AM
I may as well forego my rant. You damn near covered everything.
TV just frustrates the hell out of me. One advertiser after another. Long ads. And that constant tease - they wind down like they are finished then crank back up again - like a damned fly that's made it its life mission to buzz around in front of me until I dispatch it.
And even if I watch the ad, the audio says one thing, while the video overlays stuff I can't read. All that trickytalk does is make me think the business is nothing more than a huckstering con artist. Buy one, get another one free! Just pay separate fee!
Businesses dream up so many ways of communication in contorted ways. Imagine having to deal with one once it has your charge card number!
By the time I have sat through an hour of TV, about the last thing I feel good about is calling up a business with charge card in hand.
If WalMart does not have it, try AliExpress or Amazon. Make it yourself. Or figure the damned thing they are selling ( especially things like Smart TV's ) will bring so many problems to my life that I flat do not want one - even if they gave me one.
My phone is irritant enough. I got so mad with mine today I was sorely tempted to damage it. My old 500 series never messed with me the way this modern phone will.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by ShadowSystems on Saturday January 28 2017, @07:23AM
*Nodding sadly*
The ads only make it worse.
You'll have the show at a comfortable volume but then the ads come on & suddenly THE DAMN THING IS SCREAMING AT YOU.
*Scoops up brain & pours it back in through the ear*
Or the "fine print" thattheyreadazillionmilesanhour & there's not a chance in hell of understanding the gibberish.
*Cleans out ears with a Q-Tip*
Or you can hear the voice saying one thing but the singing describing another, making you wonder WTF they were smoking to create it.
*Sniffs for the bong*
At least online I can use an Ad Blocker, Hosts file, & various browser security bits to remove that particular plague from my life.
(They won't get my eyes anyway, I can't see them to interact with them in the first place.)
I've only got a Feature phone instead of a supposedly Smart one.
Given I only have to recharge my phone once every week & a half, I don't have to worry about some random hacker using BlueTooth to pwn me (I've turned it off since I don't use it), it doesn't run apps so there's a security screen door that's been replaced with an air tight blast door, & it only cost $40 (full price!) so I'm not too terribly chuffed if it gets lost, stolen, or destroyed.
(If my phone cost $400+ then I'd be right bloody pissed.)
TV sucks.
I'm glad to be a Cantankerous Old Fart.
Now get off my damned lawn.
=-)p
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Saturday January 28 2017, @11:59PM
17 years on and still relevant
http://www.theonion.com/article/area-man-constantly-mentioning-he-doesnt-own-a-tel-429 [theonion.com]
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Saturday January 28 2017, @02:57PM
Oh for the good old days when... advertisers could only rely on crude measures of viewership to try and target you.
From what I see, their measures are creepy but still very crude, laughably so. No sooner do I buy a book or movie I'm immediately sent ads for the exact title I just bought. Looking for a good manual for my new TV online all of a sudden I'm inundated by ads for TVs. The idiots must not realize that if I have a copy of The Martian advertising that book to me is stupidly useless.
BTW, the word you were looking for was "they're" (they are), not the possessive "their".
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org