The data generated when you watch television can reveal a lot about you and your household. So, before a company pulls up a chair next to you and starts taking careful notes on everything you watch (and then shares it with its partners), it should ask if that’s O.K. with you. VIZIO wasn’t doing that, and the FTC stepped in.

Consumers enjoy recommendations based on their television viewing habits (“viewers who watched Mr. Robot… may enjoy Fight Club”), but who else knows what you’re watching? The golden age of television has arrived with the golden age of television tracking. In 2016, virtually all television delivery systems – smart TVs, streaming devices, game consoles, apps, and even old-fashioned set top boxes – track consumers’ viewing habits, and sometimes in new and unexpected ways. Television and streaming device manufacturers, software developers, and the advertising industry are collaborating to learn more about what consumers are watching. These collaborations are allowing advertisers to precisely target consumers and better understand what ads are working. Consumers may even find advertisements based on their television viewing habits appearing on their phones and desktop browsers.

The Federal Trade Commission said Monday that Vizio used 11 million televisions to spy on its customers. The television maker agreed to pay $2.2 million to settle a case with the FTC 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 habits.

I am now the owner of a new “smart” TV, which promises to deliver streaming multimedia content, games, apps, social media and Internet browsing. Oh, and TV too.

The only problem is that I’m now afraid to use it. You would be too — if you read through the 46-page privacy policy.

The amount of data this thing collects is staggering. It logs where, when, how and for how long you use the TV. It sets tracking cookies and beacons designed to detect “when you have viewed particular content or a particular email message.” It records “the apps you use, the websites you visit, and how you interact with content.” It ignores “do-not-track” requests as a considered matter of policy.

It also has a built-in camera — with facial recognition. The purpose is to provide “gesture control” for the TV and enable you to log in to a personalized account using your face. On the upside, the images are saved on the TV instead of uploaded to a corporate server. On the downside, the Internet connection makes the whole TV vulnerable to hackers who have demonstrated the ability to take complete control of the machine.

More troubling is the microphone. The TV boasts a “voice recognition” feature that allows viewers to control the screen with voice commands. But the service comes with a rather ominous warning: “Please be aware that if your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party.” Got that? Don’t say personal or sensitive stuff in front of the TV.

You may be loving your new Internet-connected television and its convenient voice-command feature—but did you know it’s recording everything you say and sending it to a third party?

Left: Samsung SmartTV privacy policy, warning users not to discuss personal info in front of their TV Right: 1984

Samsung has confirmed that its "smart TV" sets are listening to customers' every word, and the company is warning customers not to speak about personal information while near the TV sets.

Celles-ci disposaient déjà d’un certain nombre de données personnelles sur ces personnes, qui ont ainsi pu être couplées avec leurs habitudes télévisuelles afin de proposer des publicités ciblées, explique la FTC. « Vizio permettait aux régies publicitaires de tracer et de cibler ses clients à travers plusieurs appareils », souligne Lesley Fair. Ce qui signifie que les publicités ciblées pouvaient apparaître non seulement sur la télévision, mais aussi sur l’ordinateur, le téléphone ou la tablette du client.

Consumers have bought more than 11 million internet-connected Vizio televisions since 2010. But according to a complaint filed by the FTC and the New Jersey Attorney General, consumers didn’t know that while they were watching their TVs, Vizio was watching them. The lawsuit challenges the company’s tracking practices and offers insights into how established consumer protection principles apply to smart technology.