Apple TV 4K

Apple TV 4K

Apple
Wi-Fi Bluetooth

Review date: Nov. 1, 2023

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Mozilla says

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People voted: A little creepy

If money is no object, then Apple TV 4K could be right for you. It comes with all the bells and whistles -- that means things like 4K HDR with Dolby Atmos sound. You'll be able to streams from standards like Netflix and Disney+ and rent or buy movies as well. You'll also get access to Apple TV+, Apple Fitness+, Apple Music, and Apple Arcade. Oh, and you can connect the FaceTime app through your iPhone or iPad to FaceTime on your big screen. So much better to see Gramma with. And if you like talking to Siri, just ask Siri to find you something good to watch.

What could happen if something goes wrong?

Apple does a pretty good job with privacy and security as a company. But, like life, hackers find a way! So Apple has had some pretty serious security issues. In 2023, Apple released fixes for three different vulnerabilities that made it possible for bad actors to hack Apple devices. In 2022, they had a security flaw that could allow hackers to take complete control of iPhones, iPads, and Macs. Earlier that year, Apple also gave up data to hackers who forged emergency data requests from law enforcement. Eesh. Back in 2021, another bad security vulnerability could have allowed bad actors to record calls and messages and even turn the device camera and microphone on without the user knowing. The good thing with Apple and security is, they seem to take these security breaches seriously, jump and fix them immediately, and communicate pretty well with users on what they need to do to stay safe. So keep those devices updated, folks!

On the privacy front, Apple does collect data about what you watch, purchase, or download on Apple TV as well as things like name, email address, age, location, device information, contact information. Apple will use this data to offer personalized recommendations for other shows to watch and target ads to you on Apple platforms like in the App Store or Apple News. They do give you the option to opt out of both these forms of data collection, which is great. And Apple says they share some non-personal information with the makers of shows to help them see how their shows are performing and pay out royalties. In the streaming TV world, this is all pretty standard and maybe even a little less scary than other companies like Roku who seem to share (even sell) your data with many more third parties.

And when it comes to AI voice assistants, Siri is a bit more privacy conscious than others like Amazon’s Alexa. Apple says they take special care to make sure your Siri requests aren't associated with you, and those transcripts aren’t subject to human review--anymore. In 2021, Apple made another positive change for your Siri voice requests--many audio requests for things like setting timers or alarms or controlling music are no longer sent over the internet to their servers, instead they are processed directly on your Apple TV. This is better for your privacy.

All in all, yes, Apple is generally better than other Big Tech companies (cough, Meta, cough cough, Amazon, cough Samsung), when it comes to privacy. They seem to do a better job at collecting less data, probably because they aren’t trying to sell as many ads as Google and Facebook -- yet. So when we hear that more ads are coming, that does alert our privacy Spidey Sense a bit. In early 2023, Apple hired a TV advertising executive to “build a video advertising business” for its companion streaming service with (confusingly) the same name. What that will look like, we don’t yet know, but it might be similar to Netflix’s cheaper ad tier – in which case opting out of ad targeting may no longer be an option. For now, we’re keeping an eye on Apple’s ad business ambitions with the hope that their public commitment to privacy will outweigh the need to reap those extra ad dollars.

Besides their burgeoning interest in the ad game, Apple still isn’t perfect. In January 2023, Apple was fined eight million euros by France’s data protection authority because they determined that in 2021, Apple’s iOS 14 didn’t comply with EU privacy requirements. The complaint said its default settings allowed targeted ads from Apple without asking users for consent. Regulators agreed. The thing is, Apple could do better. So it's important to hold them accountable for their privacy promises.

What’s the worst that could happen? Well, this is a good time to remind people that Apple’s privacy policy -- as do almost all the privacy policies we read -- has a clause that says, “We may also disclose information about you where there is a lawful basis for doing so, if we determine that disclosure is reasonably necessary to enforce our terms and conditions or to protect our operations or users, or in the event of a reorganization, merger, or sale.” So, while Apple is pretty good now, there is no guarantee that Apple won’t reorganize their business or change their privacy practices in the future. Then that personal information you trust them with now could become more vulnerable or more valuable. Here’s hoping Apple keeps being one of the better ones out there though. 🤞

Tips to protect yourself

  • Adjust privacy settings on Apple TV
  • You can say “Hey Siri, stop listening” to turn off speech recognition for a period of time.
  • Use your device privacy controls to limit access to your personal information via app (do not give access to your camera, microphone, images and videos).
  • Keep your app regularly updated.
  • Limit ad tracking via your device (eg on iPhone go to Privacy -> Advertising -> Limit ad tracking) and biggest ad networks (for Google, go to Google account and turn off ad personalization).
  • Keep your app regularly updated.
  • mobile

Can it snoop on me? information

Camera

Device: No

App: N/A

Microphone

Device: Yes

App: N/A

Tracks location

Device: Yes

App: N/A

What can be used to sign up?

An Apple ID is required to sign up.

What data does the company collect?

How does the company use this data?

Apple Privacy Policy

"Apple may receive personal data about you from other individuals, from businesses or third parties acting at your direction, from our partners who work with us to provide our products and services and assist us in security and fraud prevention, and from other lawful sources.

- Individuals. Apple may collect data about you from other individuals — for example, if that individual has sent you a product or gift card, invited you to participate in an Apple service or forum, or shared content with you.
- At Your Direction. You may direct other individuals or third parties to share data with Apple. For example, you may direct your mobile carrier to share data about your carrier account with Apple for account activation, or for your loyalty program to share information about your participation so that you can earn rewards for Apple purchases.
- Apple Partners. We may also validate the information you provide — for example, when creating an Apple ID, with a third party for security, and for fraud-prevention purposes.

For research and development purposes, we may use datasets such as those that contain images, voices, or other data that could be associated with an identifiable person. <...> When using such datasets for research and development, we do not attempt to reidentify individuals who may appear therein."

"Apple does not sell your personal data including as 'sale' is defined in Nevada and California. Apple also does not 'share' your personal data as that term is defined in California."

"Apple may share personal data with Apple-affiliated companies, service providers who act on our behalf, our partners, developers, and publishers, or others at your direction. Apple does not share personal data with third parties for their own marketing purposes."

"Apple uses personal data to power our services, to process your transactions, to communicate with you, for security and fraud prevention, and to comply with law. We may also use personal data for other purposes with your consent."

"Ad Targeting Information. To see information about you that may be used to deliver targeted ads by Apple’s advertising platform, including the segments that you are in."

Apple TV Apps & Privacy

"We personalize the Apple TV app to help you discover the content that’s most relevant to you. For example, we recommend movies that we think will be of interest to you based on movies you’ve previously watched. To provide personalization, we use information including what you watch, your purchases, subscriptions, downloads, browsing, and other activities in the Apple TV app, as well as information from your account such as your age."

"We provide some non-personal data to our advertisers and strategic partners that work with Apple to provide our products and services, help Apple market to customers, and sell ads on Apple’s behalf to display on the App Store and Apple News and Stocks. For example, we may share non-personal data about your transactions and viewing activity, as well as aggregated user demographics such as age group, gender (which may be inferred from information such as your name and salutation in your Apple ID account), and region, to Apple TV strategic partners, such as content owners, so that they can measure the performance of their creative work, meet royalty and accounting requirements, and improve their associated products and services."

How can you control your data?

Apple Privacy Policy

"At Apple, we respect your ability to know, access, correct, transfer, restrict the processing of, and delete your personal data. We have provided these rights to our global customer base..."

"There may be situations where we cannot grant your request — for example, if you ask us to delete your transaction data and Apple is legally obligated to keep a record of that transaction to comply with law. We may also decline to grant a request where doing so would undermine our legitimate use of data for anti-fraud and security purposes, such as when you request deletion of an account that is being investigated for security concerns. Other reasons your privacy request may be denied are if it jeopardizes the privacy of others, is frivolous or vexatious, or would be extremely impractical."

"Apple retains personal data only for so long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected, including as described in this Privacy Policy or in our service-specific privacy notices, or as required by law. We will retain your personal data for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy and our service-specific privacy summaries. When assessing retention periods, we first carefully examine whether it is necessary to retain the personal data collected and, if retention is required, work to retain the personal data for the shortest possible period permissible under law."

What is the company’s known track record of protecting users’ data?

Needs Improvement

In July 2023, Apple and Amazon were fined by Spain antitrust watchdog.

In January 2023, Apple was fined €8M in French privacy case.

In 2022, Apple identified and patched serious security vulnerabiiliites, one that could allow hackers take full control of iOS devices.

In 2022, Apple allegedly gave user data to hackers who faked being law enforcement and forged requests for information.

In 2021, Apple had a recent serious spyware security vulnerability called Pegaus that infected iPhones and other Apple devices.

In 2021, a major data leak was reported of 61 million fitness tracker data records, including Apple's Healthkit data, by the third party company GetHealth. In September 2021, a group of security researchers discovered GetHealth had an unsecured database containing over 61 million records related to wearable technology and fitness services. GetHealth accessed health data belonging to wearable device users around the world and leaked it in an non-password protected, unencrypted database. The list contained names, birthdates, weight, height, gender, and geographical location, as well as other medical data, such as blood pressure.

Child Privacy Information

Apple Privacy Policy

"Apple understands the importance of safeguarding the personal data of children, which we consider to be an individual under the age of 13 or the equivalent age as specified by law in your jurisdiction. That is why Apple has implemented additional processes and protections to help keep children's personal data safe.

To access certain Apple services, a child must have a child Apple ID. A child Apple ID may be created by the parent or, in the case of a Managed Apple ID, by the child's educational institution."

Can this product be used offline?

Yes

User-friendly privacy information?

Yes

Apple's privacy policies aren't exactly easy to read, but they are better than most.

Links to privacy information

Does this product meet our Minimum Security Standards? information

Yes

Encryption

Yes

Uses encryption in transit and at rest.

Strong password

Yes

Security updates

Yes

Manages vulnerabilities

Yes

Apple has a bug bounty program.

Privacy policy

Yes

Does the product use AI? information

Yes

Some of Apple's AI research can be found at https://machinelearning.apple.com/.

Is this AI untrustworthy?

Can’t Determine

What kind of decisions does the AI make about you or for you?

Apple states in its privacy policy, "Apple does not use algorithms or profiling to make any decision that would significantly affect you without the opportunity for human review." Apple employs machine learning in many different ways, from using it to to improve Siri to using it to sharpen the photos that you take.

Is the company transparent about how the AI works?

Yes

Does the user have control over the AI features?

Yes

*Privacy Not Included

Dive Deeper

  • Amazon and Apple fined $218 million by Spain antitrust watchdog
    CNN Business Link opens in a new tab
  • Apple fined €8M in French privacy case
    Politico Link opens in a new tab
  • Apple says it prioritizes privacy. Experts say gaps remain
    The Guardian Link opens in a new tab
  • Apple’s Privacy Mythology Doesn’t Match Reality
    Wired Link opens in a new tab
  • Apple TV+ is the only streaming service that takes your privacy seriously
    Cult of Mac Link opens in a new tab
  • Apple security flaw ‘actively exploited’ by hackers to fully control devices
    The Guardian Link opens in a new tab
  • Apple and Meta Gave User Data to Hackers Who Used Forged Legal Requests
    Bloomberg Link opens in a new tab
  • Security News This Week: Fake Cops Scammed Apple and Meta to Get User Data
    Wired Link opens in a new tab
  • 61M Fitbit, Apple Users Had Data Exposed in Wearable Device Data Breach
    Health IT Security Link opens in a new tab
  • Apple Issues Emergency Security Updates to Close a Spyware Flaw
    The New York Times Link opens in a new tab
  • Apple overhauls Siri to address privacy concerns and improve performance
    The Guardian Link opens in a new tab
  • Improving Siri’s privacy protections
    Apple Link opens in a new tab
  • Apple resumes human reviews of Siri audio
    Associated Press Link opens in a new tab
  • Apple apologises for allowing workers to listen to Siri recordings
    The Guardian Link opens in a new tab

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