(John Costello – The Jamestown Foundation) Smart televisions manufactured by firms in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) present national security risks across three categories: intelligence and surveillance, denial and disruption, and influence and manipulation. Risk profiles vary significantly by service model and manufacturer. The degree of original equipment manufacturer (OEM) control over the device stack ranges from total (proprietary platforms like Hisense’s VIDAA) to partial but irreducible (platform partner models with Google, Amazon, or Roku), with the original design manufacturer (ODM) white-label model introducing an additional layer of supply chain opacity. Data collection through automatic content recognition, OEM telemetry, and ecosystem linkages is extensive, and data residency claims are frequently contradicted or left ambiguous by the manufacturers’ own privacy policies and technical infrastructure. The most consequential OEM capability is not data collection but the ability to modify device behavior at scale through over-the-air firmware updates, a privileged access point governed by engineering teams operating under PRC jurisdiction. PRC television manufacturers are expanding rapidly into adjacent smart home ecosystems, content services, and companion applications, transforming a discrete device risk into a persistent household-embedded data infrastructure whose complexity will grow increasingly difficult to govern. – Technical Analysis Reveals Connected Smart TV Security Risks – Jamestown
