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Users of several popular Android devices discovered that ads were appearing on their home screens. XDA developers reports that the new "sponsored" channel has been spotted on Sony's smart TVs, Xiaomi's Mi Box 3 and Nvidia Shield television.
The ads began to appear with a recent update of the Android TV operating system and users have not reported being warned about them in advance. A Reddit thread noted that the ads had been published on a Sony 900F, which had a starting price of $ 999.99.
In a statement given to XDA developersA Google spokesman said the ads were part of a "pilot program," adding, "Android TV is committed to optimizing and personalizing the home entertainment experience."
A Sony support page, discovered by Ars Technica, clearly placed the blame on the ads in the hands of Google, claiming that "the purpose [of the sponsored channel] is to help you discover new applications and content for your TV. He added that the only way to disable the channel is to create a restricted profile containing the applications you really want to use.
Unfortunately, there does not seem to be many other options for getting rid of commercials. Reddit users reported that even though they were trying to disable "Android TV Core Services", disabled automatic updates and uninstalled the latest update, the ads still seemed to come back after restarting their TV.
Google is not the only company to have placed ads on smart TVs. Samsung is doing something similar in 2016 and, last month, Vizio announced the development of a new standard allowing smart TVs to display targeted ads. Previously, the manufacturer was fined $ 2.2 million in 2017 for activating default tracking on millions of TVs without the consent of its customers.
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