AwarenessYour devices, car & home
Smart speakers & TVs
Always-listening devices, and TVs that watch what you watch.
Understand it
A smart speaker listens for its wake word, and sometimes records more than that. Many smart TVs use “automatic content recognition” to log everything you watch - including from an aerial or a games console - and sell it to advertisers. Both are usually on by default.
How to spot it
Check the voice-history and privacy menus; on a TV, look for “viewing information” or ACR settings.
Close the gap
- Turn off automatic content recognition / “viewing data” on the TV.
- Delete voice recordings and turn off their storage on a smart speaker.
- Mute the microphone when you are not using it.
- Don’t connect a TV to the internet at all if you only use a separate streaming box.
What to do about it
This is what your gadgets and network quietly give off. You can't silence all of it, but reviewing each device's privacy settings - and the device steps in your plan - pulls it back a long way.