ranson

gatorguy said:

Three years ago (or thereabouts) the Republican Party sued Google for employing a similar Messages feature, sending uninvited political texts to the spam folder. I would expect a similar "influence" campaign from them with Apple trying to address the same things. It's tough to ignore the pressure political parties can apply to do their bidding when so much of what the companies do involves regulators and courts. 

At the same time, Trump's administration is following its usual playbook of threatening to sue. This time, its threat is against CNN just for covering the existence of the app.

To be clear, they are not threatening to sue. They are threatening to prosecute. There is a difference. You file suit to reach a civil outcome (liability) - an injunction to stop the practice and possibly receive a monetary award for damages - where the defendant can't receive a jail sentence. You prosecute to reach a criminal outcome (conviction) - where the prosecution wants the defendant to be punished with probation, jail time (misdemeanor) or prison time (felony).

So when they say they want to prosecute CNN or eventually Mr. Aaron, it means they want to lock people up.

mpantone said:

Let's get another thing straight: you aren't watching anonymously with AppleTV. Apple might not be selling your usage behavior nilly willy like others but Apple and their content partners will know what you are tuned into. Many of the streaming services require some sort of registration (HBO+, Paramount+, most of the sports channels, TNT, TBS). Some of these channels have short time-limited preview windows but most will force you to register even if the basic service is free.

For sure any of the streaming device (Fire TV, Roku, AppleTV, whatever) manufacturers will know what buttons you clicked and where your device is tuned into.

Heck, even PBS makes you register to access their Passport service (their VOD archive) which requires you providing an e-mail address used for a PBS membership to your local PBS affiliate. So if I start watching NOVA, a Ken Burns documentary, whatever on PBS Passport, they know. And remember that PBS isn't 100% non-commercial. They do have commercials before and after programs, they just don't interrupt programming with advertisements.

If you really want to watch TV content anonymously, stick to using OTA rabbit ear antennae and avoid the Internet. Go ahead and put your phone on airplane mode too. You are also free to get physical media and shove them into your disconnected Blu-ray/DVD player. You are also free to use terrestrial radio.

If the content is being delivered over the Internet, you can pretty much count on someone knowing what you are viewing regardless of whether or not an AppleTV box, a smart TV, streaming device plugged into a dumb TV, or something else delivers it to you. If you think otherwise you are delusional.

This is a good instructional article to minimize the monetizable data collection but don't think that you aren't being tracked after following the steps.

And again it is important to recognize that your phone has WAY more sensitive information because of what you do with it. Your address book, your schedule, your messages, Apple Pay, maybe your health data, your banking information, maps, transit passes, etc.

rob53 said:

I have my Apple TV connected to a Sony Bravia, which is packed with garbage using some kind of an Android-based system for TV viewing just like the Samsung TVs. I updated its firmware once since buying it years ago although I now use a simple TV antenna to get local channels. Do these TVs have the ability to push information back through AppleTV and broadcast TV antennas? It wouldn't surprise me if that capability has been introduced through broadcast TV but it would really upset me if Apple installed a return data capability taking images of people watching TV along with everything that shows up on the TV from any input source.

chasm said:

You can reconnect the TV to an internet connection on an annual basis to check for firmware updates, but I'd suggest leaving the TV "dumb" as much as possible for your situation.