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I don’t understand. Why would my smart TV have a camera?

I’m not going to put on pants to watch TV.



All the better to watch you with...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telescreen

That old Soviet Russia joke has truly become reality, and it is quite disturbing.


Just like you can't buy a dumb TV with a high-end panel now; eventually, you won't be able to buy a smart TV without a built in camera.


Something $0.01 piece of tape will easily fix :)

Microphones are a lot harder to block though.


What if in the future, when you block the camera of your smart TV, whatever you're watching stops playing?


Given that’s basically what YouTube is experimenting with, it seems highly likely.


Hmm good point. But I no longer watch live TV anyway. I'm done with that, I don't even have a connection to it anymore. And if streaming services start doing that I'll just download everything.


It goes flying out the window or back to the store, depending on mood.


The problem really is the microphones, basically impossible to spot and block.


Yes. What I've done with my ring cameras was open them up and remove the microphones altogether (or in one case cut the cable to them).

They were able to hear my speak literally in the next room even covered in tape :P I don't mind video of my front door ending up in Amazon's cloud but I don't want my audio going there 24/7.


The difference is that having a computer attached to the TV provides significant value to the customer. When people came into BestBuy they’d ask “Does this TV have Netflix?”

I don’t see a built in camera driving that kind of consumer behavior. What feature would they come in and ask for that requires a camera?

The spying with a SmartTV is also hidden and and hard to imagine. A camera on the TV in their bedroom though? They’ll both notice that and understand that it sees them naked.

With Smart TVs if there are two TVs on a shelf, one with “Netflix installed” and one without, I can see people preferring the TV with Netflix.

With cameras if there are two TVs on a shelf, one with a camera and one without, I see people leaving the camera on the shelf almost every time.


You bring up an excellent point. There is no value add for the consumer. Problem is, that having a built in camera will be too great of a value add for the manufacturers selling your eyeballs.


They're called computer monitors.


Ah yes...I'm sure 52" LED 120Hz monitors are super affordable.


You can always buy black masking tape to put over a fixed camera.




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