Feel free to look back at what you were watching the last time you turned on your TV. You might find it with a Previous Channel button if you’re watching cable or you might have to log into your smart TV or streaming device to remember. If you’re a Roku user, you could find a notification for the show you were just watching right on the home screen.
That’s if you left Roku track your activity. If you don’t mind getting personalized ads and content suggestions from Roku, then you don’t have to change any of the settings. Roku delivers title suggestions based on what you watch and gives you easy access to clicking on them right from the front page. This includes shows or movies that you’re in the middle of watching. If this doesn’t sound like something that you might enjoy, you can disable tracking settings and your viewing experience won’t change much at all.
What does Roku do with your data?
You can’t be too surprised
In this day and age, most people should just assume that their data is at risk any time they use the internet. Now, there are plenty of ways to set up secure ways to use the internet, such as using a VPN or a security-forward browser. But there are still ways for your data to be taken advantage of.
Roku is trying to provide you with a personalized experience when you use its operating system. That’s why it tracks what you’re doing on it. It will keep tabs on what you’re watching, what apps you’re using, and how much you’re using them.
What has changed on the home screen is that Roku will show you ads and apps you’ve been using lately and can even help you restart a show or movie you’ve already started watching, so you don’t have to open up the app and go to the title yourself. It presents cards that showcase the apps and lets you jump in.
You’ll also notice ads on the right side of the home screen that showcase shows that you might like. Along with the titles that you’re already watching, it takes what you’ve been watching and provides suggestions on what you might also like.
In order to present you with this personalization, Roku tracks your tendencies and activity. It sells your data to third party vendors who want to show you what else you can watch. But you can prevent that from happening.
Limit ad tracking can shut this down
It’s a simple fix that takes no time to change
There’s a simple setting you can change in your Roku OS that stops your TV from tracking you.
You can change this setting on any Roku device. It can be a Roku TV, Roku Streambar, Roku Streaming Stick and others.
Go into Settings on the home screen and click Privacy > Advertising. From there, click to enable Limit Ad Tracking to give you the upper hand on what is stored by Roku. This will stop your Roku and the Roku settings from tracking your data. That, in turn, will eliminate the system’s ability to turn your data over to interested vendors.
This stops Roku from tracking all kinds of measurement opportunities. It won’t log what apps you’re using and what you have watched. This gives you free reign to use your Roku for streaming, gaming, and more. You don’t have to be embarrassed by what you’re watching, thinking that you might get a targeted ad for something that you might not want others to know about.
I’ve changed my settings to act as such and have found massive success in not feeling like people are watching what I’m watching. While there is some benefit to building an algorithm that helps you find the next shows and movies that might be your favorites, I can feel better when I’m using my Roku knowing that it works just as well even with this switched off.
There are settings for people who have used Roku before
Make it feel like a brand new device again
You can limit ad tracking at any point, whether you’ve been using your Roku for a while or if you just unboxed your Roku TV. That can prevent the Roku from tracking from that point on.
But if you want to clear out the history of what you’ve looked at previously, you can have Roku do that as well. Open up Settings > Privacy again. From there, select Advertising > Reset advertising identifier and press OK.
This creates a fresh ID and lets you wipe out anything that you’ve had tracked previously on your Roku device. You might also want to disable the microphone use of your Roku voice remote because it can also track what you’re searching with your voice. This is just another way for Roku to track what you’re doing on the service, so if you’re trying to limit it fully, you can shut off that setting as well.
You don’t have to be embarrassed by what you’re watching, thinking that you might get a targeted ad for something that you might not want others to know about.
Keep your data safe with these settings turned off on Roku
Your Roku is one of the most user-friendly streaming devices on the market today. However, Roku also does use your data to create a more personalized experience by suggesting shows and movies based on what you’ve watched previously. It opens your data up to being sold but you can turn it off by searching through the privacy settings.