Streaming platforms, studios, pay TV operators, TV manufacturers, and ad tech vendors have conspired to create a highly intelligent and intrusive surveillance web which fundamentally threatens consumer privacy regulations. That is the frank conclusion from a damning new 48-page report—“How TV Watches Us”—churned out by the Center for Digital Democracy, which ignores practically all arguments in favor of how aggressive data collection improves user experiences, while enhancing the advertising ecosystem with crucial data-driven insights. The broader connected TV (CTV) industry has become a breeding ground for harvesting viewer data, the report alleges, which is sold through programmatic advertising, allowing advertisers to bid for ad slots in milliseconds. However, there is nefarious evidence of partnerships between studios, networks, and data brokers…