After a long day, there’s nothing better than sinking into the sofa, grabbing the remote and turning on the latest blockbuster movie or binge-watching TV show. Our smart TVs, which put tons of streaming apps at our fingertips, make it easy—and a bit of a hassle. That always-on connectivity comes with a hidden cost: your privacy.
Because when you’re kicking back and watching your favorite artists, your TV is watching you. It does not use a camera; It is collecting data. Worse, you can’t get around it by buying another television: all major smart TV brands use these spying features.
The good news is that you can take control and limit what your television “sees” about you, and we’re going to show you how. Read everything you need to know about the data your smart TV is collecting on you and how you can stop it.
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What does your TV know about you?
a lot We’re talking about the shows you watch, when you watch them, how often you watch them — and more. It calls it Automatic Content Recognition (ACR), which uses this information to build a user profile around your tastes.
Let’s say you like crime shows, 90s sitcoms, 80s movies and movies starring Ryan Gosling. Your ACR profile reflects all of that. It also tracks when you pause, skip or stop viewing a certain piece of content. But this visual “fingerprint” doesn’t stop with artists, genres, production dates and habits: ACR can also detect your IP address, as well as your disabled geolocation from any device you’re using and entertainment apps you’ve installed.
How does this technology work?
To track your viewing habits, ACR periodically samples small snippets of whatever is playing on your TV at any given moment, then cross-references those samples with a vast database of known content. This happens across all online streaming apps and live services, from Netflix and Hulu to Prime Video and YouTube TV.
But ACR isn’t limited to streaming apps. Remember, this happens on your smart TV, which means ACR can also track things like cable TV, DVD and Blu-ray players, gaming consoles and streaming sticks. And if you’re watching content on a laptop connected to your TV via an HDMI cable, ACR can track that too.
Who sees your data?
To begin with, your TV manufacturer, which stores, analyzes and shares this information with its partners (or sells it to them). These partners include advertisers, data brokers and marketing companies, who use your digital fingerprint to suggest relevant content based on your interests and deliver targeted ads for products or services you may purchase.
For example, if you regularly watch cooking shows, you will see more ads for food and kitchen products. Stream a lot of sports? Expect an increase in ads for sports betting apps. And you won’t just see these ads on your TV. The profile ACR builds on you may be combined with other data, such as your phone activity or web browsing history, for cross-platform tracking. Ever shopped for something online, only to see ads for it on Instagram or Facebook later? Looks like cross-platform tracking.
Cross-device tracking is hardly unique to ACR; Almost all Internet-connected devices collect some type of information about their users. But few people may know that our TVs track us too.
How can you stop your TV from tracking you?
This technology is usually enabled by default on modern smart TVs, and you’ve consented to ACR without realizing it when you click through that “Terms of Service” pop-up when you set up your television. The good news is that it’s easy to turn off, although the process varies by TV manufacturer. And different brands use different names for ACR, so you may have to look carefully to find it.
Here’s how to disable ACR on each of the most common smart TV brands:
Samsung TVs
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Press the Home button on your remote.
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Navigate to the Settings menu in the sidebar.
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Select “Privacy Options”. (On older Samsung TVs, you can find it under the “Support” menu.)
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Select “Privacy Policy”.
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Uncheck the box for “Viewing Information Services”.
LG TVs
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Press the Settings button on your remote.
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Select “Settings” in the side menu.
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Select “Advanced Settings”.
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Turn off “Live Plus”.
Sony TVs
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Press the Home button on your remote.
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Select “Initial Setup”.
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Select “Samba Interactive TV” and turn it off.
Note: Some Sony TVs have Google TV firmware. The steps to disable ACR on these models are the same as other Google TVs (see below).
Fire TVs (Amazon, Panasonic)
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Press the Settings button on your remote.
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Navigate to the “Preferences” menu.
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Select “Privacy Settings”.
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Turn off “Automatic content detection”.
Vizio TVs
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Press the Menu button on your remote.
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Navigate to “System”.
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Select “Reset and Admin”.
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Turn off “Viewing Data”.
Google TVs (Hisense, TCL, Sony)
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Press the Home button on your remote.
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Turn off “View Information Services”.
Note: On some televisions, this option is called “Smart TV Experience” or something similar. Find that and disable it. Sony models running Google TV software will have an option called “Samba Interactive TV”, just like other Sony TVs.
Hand-held TVs
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From the home screen, open “Settings”.
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Select “Smart TV Experience”.
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Toggle off “Use information from TV inputs.”
Are there other ways to make your TV more private?
yes After disabling ACR, you can do other things to limit tracking on your TV and streaming apps. Again, the steps will vary by manufacturer, but it’s worth poking around in the privacy settings before you start your next show. The easiest way is to look for menus with labels like “Privacy,” “Advertising,” “Data” or “Personalization.”
If your TV has a voice remote or other built-in voice controls, consider disabling voice recording if the option is available. Also, look for ad settings in privacy options and limit ad tracking or disable features like personalized ads. In most cases, you’ll find these in the same sub-menu where you can disable ACR.
Finally, always practice good safety hygiene with your TVs, just as you would with any other Internet-connected device. To limit cross-platform tracking, don’t link unnecessary accounts to your TV, and make sure you keep your TV’s software up to date. Although software updates don’t necessarily affect your privacy by themselves, they can patch security flaws that could potentially allow hackers to gain access to your Wi-Fi network (and your personal data).
Related:
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Sources:
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Malwarebytes Labs: “Samsung TV stops spying on viewers in Texas. Here’s how to disable ACR anywhere”
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Consumer Reports: “How to Turn Off Smart TV Snooping Features”
