Vizio to pay $2.2MN over data collection practices
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Michelle Clancy
| 07 February 2017

TV-maker Vizio will pay $2.2 million in fines ordered by the Federal Trade Commission and the New Jersey Attorney General’s office for collecting data from smart TV users without their consent.

The complaint alleged that in February 2014, Vizio rolled out a smart TV that, via a ‘Smart Interactivity’ feature for content recommendations, captures second-by-second information about video displayed. The company then allegedly sold that intelligence to third-party advertising companies, along with demographic information tied to the data, such as sex, age, income, marital status, household size, education level, home ownership and household value.

The federal court order requires Vizio to prominently disclose and obtain consent for its data collection and sharing practices, and requires it to delete any data collected before 1 March 2016. It also must implement a comprehensive data privacy programme and biennial assessments of that programme.