Connected TVs transmit household conversation to third parties under opaque privacy policies.

Evidence

The TV’s “surveillance policy”—yes, even a TV has a surveillance policy now—reveals the layers of surveillance effort and commercial interest that operate outside of awareness in our homes. Samsung acknowledges that the voice commands aimed at triggering the TV’s voice-recognition capabilities are sent to a third party and adds, “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 through your use of Voice Recognition.” Samsung disclaims responsibility for the policies of third-party firms, as nearly all surveillance policies do, including the one that actually collects and translates the talk of its unsuspecting customers. Samsung advises that “You should exercise caution and review the privacy statements applicable to the third-party websites and services you use.” The intrepid consumer determined to study these documents will find no succor in Nuance’s privacy policy, only the same catechism found in Samsung’s and that of nearly every company. It also encourages you to read the privacy policies of the companies to whom it’s selling your conversations, and so it goes: a forced march toward madness or surrender. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 822

Categorization

• SEED: The ‘forced march toward madness or surrender’ privacy-policy chain — each company points you to the next party buying your data — is a ready article angle on how privacy disclosure structurally defers accountability.
• XREF: Connects to the dispossession cycle and surveillance capital logic established in earlier chapters of this book. — connects to: Vizio secretly collected 100 billion viewing data points daily from 11 million smart TVs. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 824; Home-device privacy policies extract biometric and audio data from entire households — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 741; Smart-home IoT devices enroll consumers in surveillance-based markets without knowledge or consent — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 751

Broader Connections

• Home-device privacy policies extract biometric and audio data from entire households #corroborates (0.95) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 741
• Smart-home IoT devices enroll consumers in surveillance-based markets without knowledge or consent #expands (0.85) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 751