You're giving up private information when streaming! Protect your privacy with this guide on how to opt out of streaming services using your personal info.
American spend about 3 hours a day streaming video. Our streaming services, TVs, and apps know a lot about us, and sell that information to make more money. Protect your privacy by opting out.
I decided to write this post after receiving an email from Roku notifying me of a privacy policy update. This made me think about what data a service like Roku has and what my options might be to protect my privacy and personal information.
We spend a lot of time streaming video from various services, and because of this, our streaming services and TVs know A LOT about us. They know who we are (name, email, phone number, location, billing information), what we watch, where we are, when we watch, and what ads we interact with, and these services monetize that personal data to make even more money. TVs are so cheap (most around $400 to $500) because the TV manufacturer is selling your data (source).
When watching TV, streaming video, or using an app on your device to stream, there are 3 things you should do to protect your privacy.
Opt out of advertising and personal information sharing from streaming services (see the guide below for how to do this for many popular services).
Turn off sharing and advertising on your actual TV.
Depending on who makes your TV, what you can do and how you do it may vary greatly, but you should still try and find your options.
If your TV has you sign in to an app on the TV, check the account settings/privacy settings for that app and restrict sharing where possible.
Check your TV’s settings, and restrict sharing/access where possible.
Search for “TV Manufacturer + Privacy Policy” and “Your Rights and Choices” to see your options. For example, doing this with Samsung led me to this opt-out form.
Turn off sharing and personal information on video apps on your devices.
For most video streaming apps, if you follow the instructions in my guide, the app will respect your privacy choices since they are linked to your account.
However, my standard practice and advice is for every app that you download or have on your phone, you should explore the account settings/privacy settings to see what options you have, and pick the most privacy-preserving options available.
