this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2024
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Privacy
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What kind of TV service / set top box did you have at the time? I remember a lot of talk about providers pushing set top boxes both because it lets them use newer broadcast tech with customers using old TV tuners, but crucially it allows them to have their own software running on the box that you use to switch channels, which let them use out of band communication over the cable network to report what channels you watched, when, and how long, which I don't doubt gets sold and aggregated by ad targeting firms.
It's pretty common for smart TVs to do a similar thing to collect streaming app watch data when using the TVs built in apps.