This is how smart TVs are invading user privacy and selling that data without consent

Your government is spying on you, businesses are spying on you, your phone is spying on you, rather every screen you see watches you back. Creepy? I’m sure it is. Data is the fuel of any business from eCommerce to automation, and to get that data—companies are touching another level.

Smart TV makers Vizio has been caught secretly collecting its consumers' data through more than 11 Million smart TVs and after that selling them to third-parties without the user's explicit consent.

The Federal Trade Commission said Monday that Vizio utilized 11 million TVs to keep an eye on its customers. The TV maker agreed to pay $2.2 million to settle the case and the New Jersey attorney general's office after the agencies accused it of secretly collecting — and selling — data about its customers' locations, demographics and viewing propensities.

It is intriguing to note that Vizio didn't run afoul of the law by tracking its customers' data, which is consummately legal. Practically every major smartphone program and social-media platform collects user data—it's something about everyone has agreed to at some point after likely declining read an End User License Agreement when installing an app. Rather, the TV-maker got in a bad position for not disclosing that it was doing as such.

While Vizio is now free, the settlement raises alarming questions about the capacities of tech products to invade and violate buyer privacy. Tracking software itself isn't new—Web sites have been using cookies to monetize Internet browsing conduct since the 1990s. In any case, smartphones, and now, smart home gadgets, exhibit a startling new arrangement of difficulties for privacy advocates. After all it's not simply Vizio-- Samsung, LG, Sony, they'll are tracking user conduct and collecting data. All you can do is ‘TURN IT OFF’.