Vizio
❗Article Status Notice: This Article is a stub
This article is underdeveloped, and needs additional work to meet the wiki's Content Guidelines and be in line with our Mission Statement for comprehensive coverage of consumer protection issues. Learn more ▼
| Basic information | |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2002 |
| Legal Structure | Subsidiary |
| Industry | Electronics |
| Also known as | |
| Official website | https://www.vizio.com/ |
Vizio is an American designer of televisions, soundbars, and related software and accessories that has been owned by Walmart since 2024.[1]
Consumer impact summary
Privacy Violations
- Consumers unaware their viewing habits were being tracked[2]
- Personal information linked to viewing data without consent[3]
- Data shared with multiple third parties[3]
Financial Impact
- Consumers unknowingly subsidized lower TV prices through data sales[3]
- No direct compensation to affected consumers despite $2.2 million settlement[3]
- Data collection potentially continued for years before discovery[3]
Incidents
This is a list of all consumer protection incidents this company is involved in. Any incidents not mentioned here can be found in the Vizio category.
FTC fines Vizio for selling user data without consent (2017):
Vizio sold consumers’ viewing histories to advertisers and others without consent. The company provided consumers’ IP addresses to data aggregators, who then matched the address with an individual consumer or household. Vizio’s contracts with third parties prohibited the re-identification of consumers and households by name, but allowed a host of other personal details – for example, sex, age, income, marital status, household size, education, and home ownership. And Vizio permitted these companies to track and target its consumers across devices.[3]
SFC sues Vizio for violating GPL (2021 - Present):
On 19 October 2021, the Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) sued Vizio over the alleged unfairly appropriated software in their SmartCast system.[4] The SFC argues that Vizio’s alleged failure to adhere to copyleft-licensing requirements denies rights that are guaranteed to downstream users.[5][6]
Vizio strongly disagrees with Consumer Reports not recommending them anymore (2019):
Vizio does not address the concerns raised by the reports, and instead states "It inherently assumes that TVs from 2010 should behave the same as TVs today in terms of performance.", "The applications (apps) on connected TVs are dependent on a multitude of third-party service providers. The number of variables involved in the performance of connected TVs is greater than for non-connected TVs."[7] Consumer Reports revealed that Vizio has subpar reliability relative to other TV manufacturers, which is also among competing smart TVs.[8]
Newly purchased Vizio TVs now require Walmart accounts to use smart features (2026 - Present):
In March 2026 Walmart announced that newly purchased Vizio TVs now require a Walmart account for smart features.[9]
See also
References
- ↑ "Walmart Completes Acquisition of VIZIO". Walmart Corporate. 3 Dec 2024. Archived from the original (press release) on 4 Dec 2024.
- ↑ Christin S. McMeley; Paul Glist; John D. Seiver; Alexander B. Reynolds (Oct 2017). "The Real Takeaway From VIZIO's Privacy FTC Settlement". Davis Wright Tremaine LLP. Archived from the original (article) on 2 Dec 2020.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Lesley Fair (6 Feb 2017). "What Vizio was doing behind the TV screen". Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Archived from the original (press release) on 13 Mar 2022.
- ↑ "Vizio Lawsuit Q & A". Software Freedom Conservancy. Archived from the original (article) on 20 Oct 2021.
- ↑ Steven Vaughan-Nichols (19 Oct 2021). "Software Freedom Conservancy sues Vizio for GPL violations". ZDNET. Archived from the original (article) on 19 Oct 2021.
- ↑ FOSSA Editorial Team (13 May 2022). "The Massive Implications of Software Freedom Conservancy vs. Vizio". FOSSA. Archived from the original (article) on 14 Sep 2025.
- ↑ "VIZIO Responds to Consumer Reports' Grossly Inaccurate "Reliability" Survey; VIZIO HDTVs Maintain High Consumer Ratings and Overall Satisfaction". VIZIO. 28 March 2019. Archived from the original (press release) on 23 Jul 2021.
- ↑ "Consumer Reports No Longer Recommends Vizio and Hisense TVs Due to Problems with Reliability". Consumer Reports. 26 Mar 2019. Archived from the original (press release) on 20 Nov 2019.
- ↑ Harding, Scharon (2026-03-24). "Newly purchased Vizio TVs now require Walmart accounts to use smart features". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on 2026-03-26. Retrieved 2026-03-26.