Chinese company LeEco has purchased smart TV company Vizio, which has some concerned whether the group could use consumers’ data or spy on users, The Hollywood reporter states. Vizio has already faced 15 privacy lawsuits, with one plaintiff filing an amended complaint in California, Aug. 15, the report states. The possibility of the organization nefariously listening in via customers’ smart TVs and using the data is “perhaps unlikely,” said Brookings Institute’s Susan Hennessey. “I don’t think the basic questions are fantasy, however the specific scenarios may be far-fetched,” she said. “Unless there is specific intelligence regarding a particular company, the mere fact it is foreign-owned or even Chinese-owned is not necessarily a reason to avoid the product.” Both companies said that they would store U.S. data in the U.S., the report adds.
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