Many TVs in China are being used for more than just entertainment and news, they are spying on the consumers without their permission.
While millions of Chinese people enjoyed their TVs, laughing at sitcoms while enjoying a meal, the TVs were working to collect sensitive data from the viewers.
The breach of human rights was discovered when a computer savy TV watcher was upset their television was running slow. They decided to research the programs running in the background to see if they could identify the problem.
When looking into the code, they discovered that someone was spying.
The person who discovered the snooping posted their findings on a tech forum called V2EX. He said, “What smart devices are used at home; whether your phone is at home; who is visiting and using your Wi-Fi; what’s the name of your neighbor’s Wi-Fi; all of these are constantly being collected and uploaded.”
Gozen Data, one of the top TV viewership analytics companies in China, has been collecting customer data without their permissions.
The data is uploaded every 10 minutes and gives the company a wide range of information that could be exploited in many different ways.
The Chinese are leading the world in smart-home living, but Gozen’s over-reach is evidence that things could be moving too fast without enough oversight.
