TIL my smart TV listens to conversations even when muted
Last month I muted the TV during a heated argument about buying a grill, then next morning my phone showed Weber ads from three different retailers. I checked the TV's privacy settings and found the mic was on by default, has anyone else dug through those menus and found surprises?
I saw a piece on the news about this a while back where they tested a bunch of TVs in a lab, and some of the mics stayed live even after you hit mute. The mute button only kills the sound coming out, nothing to do with the mic picking stuff up. One guy on there said he watched his smart speaker light up every time his baby cried, which is creepy when you think about it. I went through my own TV menus after that and found a setting called "voice recognition" that was turned on, plus some ad tracking thing buried three screens deep. Turning both off didn't break anything, my remote still works fine.