The advertising targeting technologies dedicated to television multiply itself, with all the abuses that may result. It's a new gold rush.

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Thanks to the connected television, a New World opens for the advertisement specialists. Following the example of Internet browsers they allow to track the actions of the televiewer and to create his advertising profile. Among specialized companies in this domain you have TV Samba, which has recently made the object of an investigation by The New York Times.

This American company has entered into agreements with a dozen TV manufacturers - among Sony, Sharp, TCL and Philips - to be able to integrate their trackers on certain models sold in the United States. At the time of initializing the device, a screen of validation incites the user to activate the "TV Interactive Samba" service. The advantages would be multiple: "Interact with your favorite emissions", "receive recommendations", reach in "exclusive contents and special offers".

Wild practices

In reality, TV Samba is an ultrapowerful advertising trackers able to detect all what the user looks at on his TV by analyzing to the nearest second the pixels display. According to NYT, this software would be able to know the political tendency of a person. All what it needs is an analysis of the political programs he’s watching. But that's not everything. TV Samba also proceeds to a network analysis and looks at which other devices share the same Internet connection as the TV.

TV samba is not the only one to be interested in the connected TV. Other competitors are already in the business, such as Inscape/Vizio or Alphonso. The practices of these societies are sometimes a little bit wild. In 2017, Vizio had to pay a $ 2.2 million fine to the FTC for failing to collect user consent. In December, the NYT revealed that Alphonso used game apps to access the smartphones microphones and to detect audio signals in commercials and TV shows.

For the European like me, the RGPD should protect us a little

A feature which looks like SilverPush, an Indian company that offers so-called cross device tracking services. Ultrasonic beacons can be then integrated into broadcasts. Captured by a trackers installed on the smartphone, they allow the publisher to know which emissions are looked by the user.

In brief, it’s a new gold rush where the technical possibilities are still widely unexploited. Like Internet users, the televiewers risk to become the target of these marketing companies, eager for personal data. The RGPD directive should bring a certain protection against the abuses. At the condition to remain watchful and not to click all the OK buttons which appear.

For its part, TV Samba considers that its messages are perfectly clear and that the user knows what it is all about. The law would be thus respected.

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