Researchers: many smart TVs and streaming dongles from Roku, Samsung, Amazon and others are sending user data to companies like Netflix, Microsoft, and Facebook
even what you buy in stores. It's as if your TV can unhook itself from the wall and follow you around.” —@geoffreyfowler https://twitter.com/... @dhh : Oh great. Facebook Google, et al are spying on you through your smart TV as well. Wouldn't want to miss an opportunity to exploit every waken minute of the day for more data collection. Surveillance capitalism is the fucking worst. https://www.ft.com/... Toomas Hendrik Ilves / @ilvestoomas : The data were being sent whether or not the user had a Netflix account. The researchers also found that other smart devices including speakers and cameras were sending user data to dozens of third parties including Spotify and Microsoft. https://www.ft.com/... @mmnjug : The smart TVs in our homes are leaking sensitive user data to companies including Netflix, Google and Facebook even when some devices are idle, according to two large-scale analyses. https://www.ft.com/... Chris Hoofnagle / @hoofnagle : FT: NEU & ICL researchers “found that a number of smart TVs, including those made by Samsung and LG, and the streaming dongles Roku and Amazon's FireTV were sending out data such as location and IP address to Netflix and third-party advertisers.” https://www.ft.com/... See also Mediagazer
Context & Ripple Effects
This finding lands on a well-documented trail. ProPublica showed back in 2015 that Vizio sold viewing data collected by its smart TVs with tracking on by default, and Fusion's earlier roundup flagged Samsung TVs alongside Kinect and Echo as household gadgets quietly reporting on their owners. Samba TV's operation across 13.5M US sets then showed how viewing signals had become an ad-targeting business.
What the Northeastern and Imperial College researchers add is breadth and independence: the behavior isn't one vendor's misstep but a pattern spanning Roku, Samsung and Amazon Fire TV hardware, with location, IP and purchase data reaching Netflix, Microsoft, Facebook, Google, Spotify and third-party advertisers — even when devices are idle and even without a Netflix account.
First-order effects
- Owners of Roku, Samsung and Amazon Fire TV devices are having location, IP address and purchase data transmitted to streaming platforms and advertisers regardless of whether they hold accounts with the receiving services.
- Netflix, Microsoft and Facebook now face questions about what they do with data they receive from screens they didn't sell, while Roku, Samsung and Amazon must defend tracking defaults baked into hardware.
Second-order effects
- Advertisers get a richer cross-device signal chain out of the living room — the same dynamic behind Samba TV's 13.5M-set ad-targeting business — pushing more budget toward TV-derived audience data.
- The off-screen exposure problem compounds: a later study found some devices keep serving ads with the TV off, wasting over $1B a year for brands, so both the privacy and the effectiveness sides of connected-TV advertising come under pressure.
Third-order effects
- If default-on telemetry remains the norm, the TV consolidates into the home's richest surveillance node — extending the Vizio-era pattern from one manufacturer's practice to an industry-wide data supply chain feeding platform ad businesses.
- Sustained academic measurement of this kind gives regulators concrete evidence beyond anecdote, raising the likelihood that connected-device data flows become a formal privacy-enforcement target rather than fine print.
The trend: Connected TVs are evolving from content endpoints into default-on data collection infrastructure for the major advertising and streaming platforms.