Michał Stekla
In a world where every click is worth its weight in gold for advertisers, Apple TV 4K remains the last bastion of privacy. Literally. According to a PIRG (Public Interest Research Group) report, it is the most user-friendly streaming device. No tricks, no hidden tracking, no flood of ads.
You’re not watching – you’re being tracked. But not by Apple!
Competition? Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Samsung, LG – everyone is playing with automatic content recognition (ACR). Are you watching something? Their system already knows what it was and how to sell it to you a second time. They create your digital profile from it and trade it like gold. And Apple? No. It doesn’t use ACR, doesn’t sell your data, and – most importantly – doesn’t make money from ads, so it simply doesn’t need to track you.
Indeed, Apple also saves something – but not on you!
Indeed, Apple stores a list of recently viewed titles so you can continue watching on your iPad or iPhone. But everything is anonymized, and you can turn off personalization with one click. Want full neutrality? No problem – that can be set up. And Siri? Sure, it works – but voice command transcriptions are kept for a maximum of six months and are also not linked to your account.
Netflix and Prime continue their way
Of course, not everything can be bypassed – external apps like Netflix or Amazon Prime will still track you within their own profiles. But the Apple device itself does not add its own layer to this. And that makes a huge difference. In summary? Apple TV 4K is the only streamer that does not make your privacy currency. If you want to watch without advertisers' eyes on your back – you don't have much of a choice.
