New evidence suggests the Apple TV 4K might be home to the most privacy-protected display interface in the market.
In a recent breakdown by Ars Technica, the website revealed that certain ad-related settings are turned off by default or are totally non-existent on the platform.
One of those key missing features is ACR, which stands for Automatic Content Recognition. It’s a new feature cropping up on several new smart TVs, allowing TV makers increased access into your daily viewing habits.
It's not on the Apple TV 4K, though. Like on iPhone, tvOS applications must ask you before they collect data, and all the data that is collected is totally anonymized.
It's not the perfect system, but if you're concerned about your privacy, Apple TV 4K continues to prove itself as one of the best streaming devices.
Apple’s commitment to privacy on the TV 4K
As ACR crops up on many of its rivals, Apple has stayed clear from the feature entirely. Most TV manufacturers use vastly different names for it, but the concept remains the same: collecting viewing habits to target specific ads that meet your interests.
But it's not just ACR the Apple TV 4K excludes. Have you ever noticed the messages that crop up whenever you first boot up a new app on an Apple device? iPhone and iPad users might be most accustomed to it, but it essentially makes third-party app providers ask if you're OK with them collecting analytics data and using location services before they start up.
These opt-out measures are a huge game changer and puts privacy concerns to bed for the wary.
Apple TV 4K also allows you to turn off other data collecting services like Siri on tvOS. Apple can keep Siri transcripts on its servers for a set period of around six months, however there's nothing stopping you from disabling Siri outright .
Cracks in the Apple privacy framework
Although Apple TV 4K might be the most privacy-protected of all the streaming devices, it's not a full-proof experience. You will still have some privacy concerns to deal with, largely stemming from Apple accounts and the TV application.
Search terms are a big one, as is your general history, but you can even disable personalized recommendations if you wanted to. These sort of make sense, though, as they're not necessarily targeting you nefariously to sell you ads but gain a better understanding of your viewing history to better improve Apple's own recommendations.
Meanwhile, you have companies like Roku and LG devising some of the most dystopian methods of gaining a better understanding of your viewing habits: LG TVs are about to show you ads based on your emotions, which is terrifying to think about. Roku's no better, patenting all kinds of ways to ensure its platform remains ad-rich.
That's what makes Apple stand out. Despite several flaws and a rather high price, the Apple TV 4K is one of the best ways to bypass ad-heavy platforms and keep your viewing habits as private as possible.
Hopefully, the rumored Apple TV 4K refresh takes a similar approach to this success.
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