A Case Study of 3rd Party Hardware: The Weakest Link in Google’s Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence Implementation

The proliferated smart TV market has sparked a race among the tech giants to capture market share, with Google aggressively pursuing this domain through partnerships with third-party smart TV manufacturers. However, this expansion raises critical concerns regarding security vulnerabilities and the potential breakdown of Google’s Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence Implementation (TAII) standards. Despite the significant focus on software security, there is a lack of research on the security and privacy challenges associated with smart TV hardware. In this paper, we present a case study exploring the security vulnerabilities present in TCL Smart TVs integrated with Google Cloud services. Our case study result identifies significant risks of consumer data breaches and exposure of personal information. Our findings show significant gaps in following the TAII principles of privacy, security, safety, and transparency.