Your Smart TV May Be Crawling the Web for AI

Source: Slashdot

Overview

Bright Data, a company that operates one of the world’s largest residential proxy networks, has been running an SDK inside smart TV apps that turns those devices into nodes for web crawling. The SDK collects data used by AI companies and other clients, often without consumers’ knowledge.

Platform Support

• Bright Data has published more than 200 first‑party apps to LG’s app store.
• The company lists Samsung’s Tizen OS and LG’s webOS as supported platforms.
• LG states the SDK is not officially supported and its operation on webOS is not guaranteed.
• Google, Amazon, and Roku have adopted policies restricting or banning background proxy SDKs.
• Consequently, Bright Data no longer supports those platforms.

Recent Developments

• Several Roku apps still running the SDK were removed from the store after a journalist from The Verge contacted Bright Data regarding this reporting.