Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

Ad-free doesn't necessarily mean they aren't tracking you, right? Viewership info is _still_ valuable, even if it's not being used right on the device.



Yes I suppose that's true. Tracking can at least be defeated by simply not connecting to the internet.

Some TVs with ads actually have ads pre-loaded on them, so not connecting them isn't sufficient to defeat the ads.


This is until they start using 5G or LoRa to make a mesh to get around that.


Amazon's Smarthome stuff offers basically a bluetooth side-channel specifically for this purpose. It's called "Amazon Sidewalk", and they are already using it for Tile trackers, Ring Doorbell stuff (the doorbell even acts as a mesh point for this in some models)


Yep, eventually this technology will be worthwhile for folks with less scale to implement. Maybe Amazon will license access to Sidewalk. I believe Apple does a similar thing with their devices.


Under "Opt-out of Suggested Content" its "No" for the Vizio TVs. Either its generic Ads, or they're watching you to target the Ads.




Join us for AI Startup School this June 16-17 in San Francisco!

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: