Privacy from 5 PM to 6 AM: Tracking and Transparency Mechanisms in the HbbTV Ecosystem

Böttger, Christian; Hosseini, Henry; Utz, Christine; Demir, Nurullah; Hörnemann, Jan; Wressnegger, Christian; Hupperich, Thomas; Pohlmann, Norbert; Große-Kampmann, Matteo; Urban, Tobias

Abstract

Hybrid broadcast broadband television (HbbTV) is an evolving technology that connects linear TV with modern HTML5 applications, delivering extras like games, videos, and online shopping. However, its bidirectional transmission functionality raises privacy concerns, as it introduces new tracking methods for TV channels. While previous studies focused on security issues or user awareness of HbbTV privacy challenges, a detailed examination of the tracking and transparency mechanisms of the HbbTV ecosystem is still missing. This study fills this gap by extensively analyzing these features within the European HbbTV ecosystem, and in particular within German-language TV channels. We monitored more than 350 TV channels for over 400 hours, evaluating 1) prevalent HbbTV tracking methods, 2) consent notice prevalence and user interactions, and 3) privacy policy disclosures. Our findings indicate that the HbbTV tracking system operates independently of the Web, consent notices exploit system constraints to influence users, and privacy policies often do not align with actual data practices.