Vizio IPO Filing Exposes Data Mining Plans

Vizio’s recent IPO filing raises questions about the collection of consumer data and how companies use it.

In its public filing, Vizio wrote:

Our strong brand, technological leadership and go-to-market strategy have driven the broad adoption of our Smart TVs, creating a community of over 8 million VIZIO connected units, or VCUs. A VCU is a Smart TV that has been connected to the Internet and has transmitted data collected by our Inscape data services. Our Inscape data services capture real-time viewing behavior data from our VCUs and enable us to provide it to advertisers and media content providers [emphasis added.] The scale of our VCU community, together with our engaged user base and our Inscape data services, position us at the nexus of the connected entertainment ecosystem.

For an interesting take on the subject, see this report from trade publication CE Pro.

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