Apple TV 4K

Apple does collect data about what you watch, purchase, or download on Apple TV. 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 your data with many more third parties.

When it comes to those Siri requests through the remote control, Apple takes special care to make sure those requests aren't associated with you, which is great. Apple did face backlash in 2019 when it came to light their contractors were regularly listening in on confidential personal conversations when they were reviewing the voice assistant's recordings. Apple changed their policy so users weren't automatically opted-in to human voice review. Recently, Apple made another positive change for your Siri voice requests — many audio requests for things like setting timers or alarms or controlling music will no longer be sent over the internet to their servers, instead processing them directly on the device. This is better for your privacy.

Apple did recently suffer a bad security vulnerability that resulted in spyware that could allow bad actors to record calls and messages and even turn an iPhone or iPad camera and microphone on without the user knowing. Apple did patch the security vulnerability. And this vulnerability didn’t seem to impact Apple TV devices. But, it is a good reminder that even the best companies can be vulnerable to high level hacking.