Samsung Exec: Smart T.V. ‘Advertisers Want [To] Know Exactly What You Ate for Breakfast’ ⇥ arstechnica.com

Scharon Harding, Ars Technica:

Most smart TV operating system (OS) owners are in the ad sales business now. Software providers for budget and premium TVs are honing their ad skills, which requires advancing their ability to collect user data. This is creating an “inherent conflict” within the industry, Takashi Nakano, VP of content and programming at Samsung TV Plus, said at the StreamTV Show in Denver last week.

During a panel at StreamTV Insider’s conference entitled “CTV OS Leader Roundtable: From Drivers to Engagement and Content Strategy,” Nakano acknowledged the opposing needs of advertisers and smart TV users, who are calling for a reasonable amount of data privacy.

Thanks to the failed nomination of Robert Bork to the U.S. Supreme Court, the country actually has privacy protections specifically related to television and video services. Yet even with all the data advertisers are able to obtain — sometimes illicitly — it is never enough for this greedy, unethical industry.