How Smart Devices Track You
Your TV, thermostat, and doorbell are constantly phoning home. Here is what they collect and how to stop it.
What Gets Sent
Smart TVs are among the worst offenders. Vizio was fined $2.2 million by the FTC for collecting viewing data without consent. Most smart TVs use Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) - software that screenshots whatever is on screen every few seconds and sends it back to the manufacturer.
Smart speakers send audio clips back to Amazon and Google for quality review. Even robot vacuums map your home - iRobot explored selling floor plan data to smart home companies before public backlash killed the plan.
Turn Off ACR on Your Smart TV
What Harbor Privacy Blocks
At the DNS level Harbor Privacy blocks the tracking endpoints these devices use - ACR servers, telemetry endpoints, ad targeting domains. Your Alexa still works. Your TV still streams. The data collection side gets cut off before it ever leaves your network.
Stop your smart home from spying.
Harbor Privacy blocks smart device telemetry at the DNS level - automatically for every device on your network.
Get Harbor Privacy →