This free TV features an additional screen for showing ads even when not in use

Image credit : Telly What would you agree to do in exchange for a free TV? If the answer is yes, then Telly has the deal for you. They will ask for information on what you watch, look up, and listen to on that TV, how long you do so, how much money your household makes, what foods and brands you enjoy, as well as your race. A second screen named the Smart Screen is connected to the 55-inch 4K HDR TV that Telly introduced today (and has been rumored to be on the way since earlier this month). Aside from relevant material like news feeds from particular publications, weather, or game results for favored sports teams, the smaller Smart Screen is only used to display advertisements. The TV contains a TV tuner, three HDMI connections, two USB ports (versions unknown), and a 4K Android TV streaming stick. You can use your own streaming service or device, but Telly doesn't support third-party streaming apps like Hulu, according to The Verge. The major focus of Telly, which was launched in May 2021 by Ilya Pozin, co-founder of the free TV streaming service Pluto, is customers' favorite four-letter word: free. As a result, we know almost nothing about its specifications at this time. However, in this instance, "free" is a bad deal because the price of that free TV is a significant loss of privacy for the sake of marketing. Telly is clear about its strategy; the press release from today states that the TV seeks to "revolutionize the industry's business model by enabling advertisers to fully subsidize the cost of the TV itself for the consumer and deliver it completely for free." "Companies are making billions of dollars from ads served on televisions, yet consumers have historically had to pay for both the TV and the content they watch," Pozin said in a statement. But the kind of data Telly needs from you—from responses to the survey you must complete on their mobile app you must download to reserve one of the 500,000 Tellys anticipated to ship this summer—are the kind of data sets an organisation should pay you for. It doesn't feel like enough to have a TV that's conservatively estimated to be worth around $500 and has a supplementary, if not distracting, screen right south of it. According to The Verge, Telly's Smart Screen can display advertisements on its right side or "in the form of a sponsored news feed on the left side of the screen." [caption id="attachment_173465" align="aligncenter" width="2000"] Image credit : TechHive[/caption] Dallas Lawrence, Telly's chief strategy officer, told The Verge:

When the Theatre display (top screen) is not in use, the ad unit could come to life in a fun way connecting both. There are literally hundreds of things we are thinking about to create the most engaging ad experience ever.

For instance, the CEO mentioned that the business is creating a rewards program through which owners of Telly TVs can acquire gift cards to stores like Starbucks and Netflix in exchange for completing surveys on their TVs. If you're cool with Telly's viewing and activity data policy, it will be pleased to provide you with a boring television in the interim. It says that Telly "may" gather data on the channels watched and the length of viewing sessions, as well as the video and audio content viewed on the free TV. Also read : Users Noticed Elon Musk’s Tweets Have Been Overflowing Their Twitter Feeds The following is taken from Telly's viewing and activity data policy page, which has an unusually high number of mistakes and doesn't assist establish confidence in the business:

Viewing Data is associated with the IP address for the television unit you are provided and a unique device number we assign. However, Telly will combine and associate your Viewing Data with your Telly account name if you create such an account or link to it to provide you with a more personalized experience on your TV. The Viewing Data software also periodically collects other information about the TV or display, including IP address and the media access control (“MAC”) addresses of available access points. Viewing Data is maintained and used in an unidentified format, and to the extent that Telly orits authorized data partners attempt to re-identify the data to associate it with individual customers, all personal information remains anonymous.

It's important to note that Telly has an HD camera, a microphone, and motion sensors at this time. The advertised uses for those components include fitness tracking, integrated games, and Zoom video calls. But Telly hasn't gone into great depth about those use cases. In the meanwhile, tracking people with a camera, microphone, and motion sensors sounds very effective.