Modern television devices, so-called Smart-TVs, offer a range of options, which were formerly restricted to traditional computer systems. These include for instance the usage of IP-telephone services, watching videos online or surfing the internet. These novel opportunities to connect online promise users numerous advantages, but at the same time yield new risks for data protection and privacy. New and innovative concepts and technologies are needed in order to protect consumers, businesses as well as third parties from improper use, malware and other dangers when using Smart-TV.
The article at hand addresses specifically legal advisors and technical developers. In this respect, an overview of changes and rising opportunities in the field of Smart-TV is presented and risks concerning personal rights of users are portrayed in detail. Based on a technical background on Smart-TV, relevant actors and components are introduced and subsequently several attacker models and attack vectors are discussed. Given the conditions for legal and data protection different threat scenarios are derived, which point at the informational self-determination of users. Moreover, the data protection legitimacy of data processing from using Smart-TV is being analyzed.
Based on these insights, the authors present examples for methods and means of protection on how to optimize existing Smart-TV systems technically as well as from a legal perspective. This is carried out under the "Privacy by Design"-approach and in the context of selected data protection goals of non-linkage, transparency and options for intervention.
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