Your Roku TV Knows More About You Than You May Be Comfortable Sharing
More and more companies are mining and profiting from our privacy. A cord cutter recently shared in Reddit, that when he hooked a laptop through an HDMI input to a Roku Smart TV, a message popped up on the screen that offered more ways to watch. It knew the exact details of the game he was watching even the exact names of the teams participating in the match.
This information is recorded and then sold to 3rd parties through a technology Roku implements in their television called “Automatic Content Recognition."
If you dig down deep into the tiny print in Roku's Terms of Service you will come across a section that tells you that you have given Roku your consent when you agreed to their TOS. Included in this consent is you give them the right to sell your private viewing data, which also includes what you watch and when including from any other devices that you may use when plugged into additional inputs.
How to Disable Automatic Content Recognition
1. Enter the settings menu on your Roku TV and scroll down to Privacy and then Smart TV Experience this is where you can disable this function.
2. Go to “Use info from TV inputs” and turn it off.
After this has been disabled you should not receive any more messages, and your data will remain private on devices plugged into your television inputs.
You can read more about this on Consumer Reports at: https://www.consumerreports.org/privacy/how-to-turn-off-smart-tv-snooping-features-a4840102036/#
Roku is upfront on the data they collect in its TOS, and they do give you an option to opt out. Some more unscrupulous companies won't even bother telling you.
So if you don't want your info sold to data miners, be sure to disable and turn off "Use info from TV inputs."
