Vizio fined US$2.2 million for getting smart with consumers

LCD TV vendor Vizio has agreed to pay US$2.2 million to settle charges by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Office of the New Jersey Attorney General that it installed software on its TVs to collect viewing data on 11 million consumer TVs without consumers' knowledge or consent.

According to the agencies' complaint, starting in February 2014, Vizio and an affiliated company manufactured Vizio smart TVs that capture second-by-second information about video displayed on the smart TV, including video from consumer cable, broadband, set-top box, DVD, over-the-air broadcasts, and streaming devices. The defendants also remotely installed monitoring software on previously-sold televisions that did not originally have the software installed at the time of purchase.

Vizio then facilitated appending demographic information to the viewing data, such as sex, age, income, marital status, household size, education level, home ownership, and household value, with the combined information being sold to third parties, who used it for purposes including targeting advertising to consumers across devices, according to the FTC.

According to the FTC complaint, Vizio has sold over 11 million internet-connected televisions since 2010.

Vizio released a statement saying it was pleased to reach a resolution with the FTC and to reiterate that the monitoring software never paired viewing data with personally identifiable information such as name or contact information. The company added that prior to the resolution it had addressed the concerns by updating online and onscreen disclosures.

Vizio was acquired by China-based LeEco in July 2016 for US$2 billion.

According to Digitimes, Foxconn is also a shareholder of Vizio with an 8% stake in the company. Foxconn also manufactures products for the vendor.