I’m pretty familiar with how one particular brand of TV works, and you’re right, it’s absolutely not screenshots. It’s a handful of single pixels across the screen. By matching these pixels against known content it’s possible to identify what was being watched. Not too different than how Shazam can identify a song.
That’s not to say all TV manufacturers work that way.
Yeah this post hit me different than was probably the intent. I’ve been expecting to get laid off for the past 6 months ago, initially it was fear, eventually it was desire. Didn’t happen though and I’ve since found a new job, but I would have welcomed it if it did.