Why the Apple TV Box Provides More Privacy Than Your Smart TV (but It’s Not Perfect)
Let’s be clear: Smart TVs are a privacy nightmare. Almost all of them track everything you watch, even if you use an HDMI cable, and send it to analytics firms, advertisers, and God knows who else. In capitalist America, your TV is spying on you.
With that in mind, a common piece of privacy advice is to disconnect your smart TV from the internet and use an Apple TV for streaming instead. And there’s a point to that advice: Apple’s streaming box collects far less personal information than a standard smart TV, while still providing a simple, remote user interface with support for all the major streaming services.
That said, it’s not as if Apple doesn’t collect any data. And using an Apple TV means buying a $130-plus streaming box on top of the price of your TV, which adds up quickly if you have multiple TVs in your home. With that in mind, let’s break down the privacy benefits of Apple TV versus using the operating system in your smart TV.
No automatic content recognition
You know that common myth that smartphones listen to your conversations and show you ads? It’s not true , at least not for your phone. But it’s not that far from how TVs work.
Almost all smart TVs on the market use a technology called Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) to create a record of everything you do on TV. You can think of this technology as something like the music recognition service Shazam, but for TV shows, movies, and video games instead of music. This software constantly runs in the background of your TV, creating a running list of everything you watch. This data is then sold and shared with various third parties. Notably, this data collection occurs even when using the HDMI port, meaning marketers know exactly how much time you’ve spent on Elden Ring over the past few years.
Companies like Inscape and Samba actively boast about the data they collect using this technology on their websites. Their software, or software similar to it, is installed on almost every TV on the market right now. Apple TV, in particular, does not use this technology and does not keep track of what you watch inside apps. This is the most obvious privacy benefit of using Apple TV versus your smart TV interface.
Apple collects some data (and may collect more)
That said, Apple TV devices do record some data — just much less than similar devices. At Ars Technica, Sharon Harding wrote an analysis of the Apple TV’s privacy pros and cons, which you can read if you really want to get into the nitty-gritty (along with speculation about how things might change). She concluded that the Apple TV is the most private streaming gadget, which I agree with.
In most cases, Apple devices give you a lot of control over your data. When you set up a new Apple TV, the device asks you if you want to share analytics data with Apple — you can easily opt out before using the device. You’re also asked if you want to turn on location services and Siri. If you turn on Siri, your voice recordings will be sent to Apple’s servers for processing. Following a class action lawsuit, Apple no longer stores this information unless you explicitly agree to it.
Apple TV also gives you a lot of control over the information that the apps you install have. Apps can access information including your location, your photos, other media stored on Apple, and your HomeKit data, but only if you allow them to (a pop-up will appear asking if you want to grant permission). You can also decide which apps, if any, you want to grant access to tracking features. It’s a level of control that’s not common in smart TVs, to say the least.
The Apple TV app is the centerpiece of the Apple TV, and even offers a hub for watching content from other streaming services. The app records what you watch to make recommendations and show ads within the app. You can turn off this tracking in Settings. The TV app also shares “non-personal” data, including viewing activity and demographic information, with “strategic partners.” This is all standard practice for a streaming service, but worth keeping in mind.
Overall, though, Apple TV itself — unlike the apps running on the device — doesn’t collect much information about you or your viewing habits.
Is there anything better?
Maybe you’re uncomfortable with Apple having any information about you. What’s the best app to install? There’s really no good answer. You can set up a computer or a Raspberry Pi and install a privacy-focused Linux operating system on it. Then you can set up a privacy-focused browser to watch your shows. This will give you a slight privacy advantage over the Apple TV, but with a few obvious drawbacks.
First, you’ll likely have to control everything with a mouse and keyboard. (You could get around this with Kodi at one point, but plugins for most streaming services have long since stopped working.) Put simply: If you want one device you can buy, plug into your TV, and watch common streaming apps with a remote, the Apple TV is the most privacy-focused device you can buy and use that way.