Is Your Smart TV Watching You?

Vizio used 11 million televisions to spy on its customers, the Federal Trade Commission said this week. The electronics firm agreed to pay $2.2 million to settle a case with the New Jersey attorney general’s office. Vizio neither confirmed nor denied wrongdoing in the settlement, but the case accused the company of using cameras implanted in their “smart” TVs to collect, and sell, data about its customers’ locations, demographics, and viewing habits. “Today, the FTC has made clear that all smart TV makers should get people’s consent before collecting and sharing television viewing information, and Vizio is now leading the way,” the company’s general counsel, Jerry Huang, said. Vizio is the most popular maker of TVs in the U.S, with about 20 percent of the market. The lawsuit claims Vizio was watching its watchers, capturing “second-by-second information” about what people viewed. The company said it will delete all the data it captured through the feature before March 2016, and prominently display its data collection and privacy policies to consumers.