Federal Trade Commission v. Vizio

Vizio Inc. was found guilty of unauthorized tracking and failing to provide information before collecting and sharing their television viewing information.

VIZIO, a television manufacturer, has been accused of violating laws by installing software on their televisions without consumers' knowledge or consent that collected viewing data. The company sold over 11 million internet-connected televisions since 2010, and since February 2014, the televisions were designed to continuously track consumers' viewing habits and transmit the data to VIZIO through the proprietary ACR software, which was turned on by default.
Starting February 2014, the company remotely installed ACR software on previously sold televisions that didn't have it installed at the time of purchase. Consumers who purchased VIZIO televisions after August 2014, with ACR tracking pre-installed and enabled by default, were not notified onscreen about the collection of viewing data. For televisions that were updated in February 2014 to install default ACR tracking after purchase, an initial pop-up notification appeared on the screen that only mentioned a change in VIZIO's Privacy Policy and that Smart Interactivity has been enabled on the TV, but consumers could disable it in the settings menu. The message did not directly link to the settings menu or privacy policy, nor did it provide any information about the collection of viewing data or ACR software.
The Federal Trade Commission and the Office of the New Jersey Attorney General have charged VIZIO with violating Section 5(a) of the FTC Act and Section 56:8-2 of the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act. The representations made by VIZIO were not clear or prominent enough to alert consumers to their data collection practices, which included the sale of licenses. The company's practices were considered deceptive, including hidden information and misrepresentations, which misled consumers into allowing VIZIO to collect and sell their viewing data.