Smart TV viewing data: what ACR collects, where the Texas cases stand, and how to switch it off

Many smart TVs can recognize what is on the screen and report it back to the company that made them. The technology is called automated content recognition, or ACR. In December 2025, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued five major TV makers over it: Sony, Samsung, LG, Hisense and TCL. Two of those cases have since been settled. This guide sets out what the state says ACR does, what the two settlements require, and where to look for the settings before and after you buy.

What ACR does

When it announced the lawsuits on December 15, 2025, the attorney general's office said the software “can capture screenshots of a user’s television display every 500 milliseconds”. It said the software can also track viewing as it happens and report it to the company without users knowing or agreeing, and that the companies sell the data for ad targeting on other platforms. These are the state's allegations. No court has decided whether they are true.

The concern is not new. In February 2017, Vizio agreed to pay $2.2 million to settle charges by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and New Jersey's attorney general that it had collected viewing data from 11 million TVs without consumers' knowledge or consent. According to their complaint, Vizio smart TVs made from February 2014 captured second-by-second information about the video on screen, whether it came from cable, broadband, a set-top box, a DVD, an over-the-air broadcast or a streaming device. Vizio promoted a “Smart Interactivity” setting for program offers and suggestions but did not tell consumers that the same setting turned on the data collection, the agencies alleged.

The court order in that case required Vizio to disclose its data practices prominently and to obtain consumers' affirmative express consent before collecting and sharing the data. It also required the company to delete data collected before March 1, 2016.

Where the Texas cases stand

Both settlements were made with Texas, and the releases describe them in terms of Texas consumers. Neither release says whether the companies will make the same changes in other states. The LG agreement also bars any transfer of viewing data to the Chinese Communist Party, according to the attorney general's office.

What the companies have said

The agreed final judgment in the LG case, which the attorney general's office published with its May 11 announcement, says nothing in it may be taken as “an admission or concession of any violation of law or regulation,” and that it was entered into “solely to allow the Parties to avoid loss of time and resources in the Litigation.” In it, LG stipulates that viewing data collected from consumers “has not and will continue to not be transmitted in any form from the U.S. to the People's Republic of China.” Texas, in the same document, “recognizes LG's proactive efforts to implement strong data privacy practices, including measures that exceed industry norms.”

No public response to the Texas allegations from Samsung, Sony, Hisense or TCL was found in the companies' own newsrooms as of October 29, 2026.

How to turn it off

Each brand names the setting differently. In a consumer alert on December 19, 2025, the attorney general's office gave general steps that could turn off some of the data collection on TVs from some of the companies it had sued:

1. Press the Home button on the remote control and open Settings.
2. Look in the General, System or Intelligence section.
3. Open the menu called Privacy, Terms & Conditions, Privacy Choices or something similar.
4. Turn off options called Smart TV Experience, Viewing Information Services or similar. These control ACR, the office says.
5. In the same menu, look for options to turn off personalized advertising, called Personalized Ads, Interest-Based Advertising, Content Recommendation or similar. Some TVs also offer a “do not sell my personal data” choice.

Read the names with care. In the Vizio case, a setting presented as a way to get program suggestions was the one that switched on the data collection, the FTC alleged. If the menu does not make clear what a setting controls, check the privacy notice or the maker's support pages.

Before you buy

• Read the privacy screens during setup rather than accepting them all at once. Under the Samsung and LG settlements, Texas consumers are to be told how their viewing data may be used and asked for their consent.
• Do not assume a streaming stick or cable box keeps your viewing private. In the Vizio case, the TVs captured information about video from sources including set-top boxes, DVDs, over-the-air broadcasts and streaming devices.
• Check the privacy settings again after setup, using the steps above or the path in the maker's support pages.
• For the rest of the spec sheet, from HDMI ports to the energy label, see our guide to reading a TV spec sheet.

What this guide cannot tell you

The claims in the Texas lawsuits have not been tested in court, and the cases against Sony, Hisense and TCL were still open as of the attorney general's May 11, 2026 announcement. We have not examined how any brand's current software behaves. This guide is based only on the official releases and the court document linked below.