Vacation. Generally, people take a vacation to have some fun and maybe get some sun. But there are times the sun isn’t shining and the fun is watching a bit of TV. Well, now that the market is saturated with smart TVs, you’re likely to find one at your next Airbnb or house rental. And most of these smart TVs have one thing in common: pre-installed streaming services.
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My family and I just returned from a nice 10-day beach vacation in which there was a nice Samsung TV supplied by the owners of the home we stayed in. There were a variety of streaming services on this TV, including Vudu, Netflix, Amazon Prime, YouTube, and Disney+.
We usually try and skip watching TV while on vacation, but I know Samsung TV Plus is pre-installed and requires no login, so I thought we’d watch a little something. For fun, I checked out some of the other streaming services, and to my shock, several of them still had users logged in. I went in and logged these accounts out, but this is a good reminder to always log out of streaming accounts before you leave.
Or even better yet, don’t log in to a device you don’t own. I bring along an HDMI cable to hook up my laptop to any TVs, should I want to use one of my streaming accounts. Forgetting to log out of your streaming accounts could result in someone purchasing movies on that account — both Vudu and Amazon Prime both have options to purchase media. Or even worse, someone may be able to change your password or account details.
You could even bring a Roku stick, Chromecast, or Amazon Firestick and set that up on the TV using your phone’s hotspot if you really need to watch TV.
If your streaming services offer 2-factor authentication, I’d suggest setting that up. But if you do happen to log in and forget to log out, you can always go to your streaming account and search for something like “log out of all devices” or “manage devices.”
Most services will have these options so you can protect your account from being used in case you forgot to log out. If you can’t find the option for this, you can always change your password, which should cause anyone trying to use the service to log back in.
Streaming services are convenient and they’re awesome for watching content from just about anywhere. But you need to be aware of security and take care if you plan on using your accounts on devices you don’t own. Our recommendation would be never to use a device you don’t own but rather bring a device you can connect via HDMI and use the TV to play it back on.
Have you ever forgotten to log out of your streaming accounts on a smart TV you used on vacation? Please share your thoughts on any of the social media pages listed below. You can also comment on our MeWe page by joining the MeWe social network.
Last Updated on December 23, 2021.
