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Your Smart TV Is Secretly Spying on You—Here’s How to Get It to Stop

After a long day, there’s nothing better than sinking into the couch, grabbing the remote and cranking up the latest blockbuster. binge-worthy TV show. Our smart TVs, which put so many streaming apps at our fingertips, make this easy, and that’s a bit of a problem. Always-on connectivity has a hidden cost: your privacy.

Because while you sit back and watch your favorite actors, your TV is too. You. This one doesn’t use a camera; collects data. Even worse, you can’t get around this by buying another TV: All major smart TV brands use them spying features.

The good news is that you can control and limit what your television “sees” about you; We’ll show you how to do it. Read on for everything you need to know about the data your smart TV collects about you and how you can stop it.

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What does your television know about you?

Too much. We talk about the shows you watch, when you watch them, how often you watch them, and much more. It learns this through something called automatic content recognition (ACR), which uses this information to create a user profile based on your tastes.

Let’s say you like crime dramas, ’90s sitcoms, ’80s movies, and movies starring Ryan Gosling. Your ACR profile reflects all of these. It also tracks when you pause, skip or stop watching certain content. But this tracking “fingerprint” isn’t limited to actors, genres, production dates and habits: ACR can even detect your footage. rough geographical location From your IP address, any device you use and entertainment apps you install.

How does this technology work?

To keep track of your viewing habits, ACR periodically samples small snippets of everything playing on your TV at any given moment and then cross-references those samples with a massive database of known content. This happens on all online streaming apps and live services. netflix and from Hulu to Prime Video and YouTube TV.

But ACR isn’t just limited to streaming apps. Note that this happens on your smart TV; This means the ACR can also monitor things like cable TV, DVD and Blu-ray players, game consoles, and streaming sticks. If you’re viewing content on a laptop connected to your TV via HDMI cable, ACR can monitor that too.

Who sees your data?

For starters, it’s your TV manufacturer who stores this information, analyzes it and shares it with (or sells it to) its partners. These partners include advertisers, data brokers and marketing companies that then use your digital fingerprint to suggest relevant content based on your interests and serve you targeted ads for products or services you are more likely to purchase.

For example, if you regularly watch cooking shows, you’ll likely see more ads for food and kitchen products. Do you broadcast a lot of sports? We expect an increase in ads for sports betting apps. Moreover, you will not only see these ads on your TV. The profile that ACR creates on you may be combined with other data, such as your phone activity or phone activity. web browsing historyfor cross-platform monitoring. Have you ever shopped for something online and then saw ads for it on Instagram or Facebook? This is what cross-platform tracking looks like.

Cross-device tracking is hardly unique to ACR; Almost all devices connected to the Internet collect some type of information about their users. However, the number of people who are aware that our televisions are also tracking us may be fewer.

How to stop your TV from tracking you?

This technology is usually enabled by default on modern smart TVs, and you’ve probably unknowingly allowed ACR when you clicked on it.terms of service“Pop-up when setting up your TV. The good news is that it’s easy to turn off, although the process varies by TV manufacturer. Different brands also 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

Press the Home button on your remote control.
Go to the settings menu in the sidebar.
Select “Privacy Options”. (On older Samsung TVs, you can find this under the “Support” menu.)
Select “Privacy Policy”.
Uncheck the “View Information Services” box.

LG TVs

Press the Settings button on your remote control.
Select “Settings” from the side menu.
Select “Additional Settings”.
Turn off “Live Plus”.

Sony TVs

Press the Home button on your remote control.
Select “Initial Setup”.
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 on other Google TVs (see below).

Fire TVs (Amazon, Panasonic)

Press the Settings button on your remote control.
Go to the “Preferences” menu.
Select “Privacy Settings”.
Turn off “Automatic Content Recognition”.

Vizio TVs

Press the Menu button on your remote control.
Go to “System”.
Select “Reset and Manage”.
Turn off “View Data”.

Google TVs (Hisense, TCL, Sony)

Press the Home button on your remote control.
Turn off the “View Information Services” option.

Note: On some televisions, this option may be called “Smart TV Experience” or similar. Search for this and disable it. On Sony models running Google TV software, this option will be called “Samba Interactive TV” like on other Sony TVs.

Roku TVs

Open “Settings” from the home screen.
Select “Smart TV Experience”.
Turn off the “Use Information from TV Inputs” option.

Are there any other ways to make your TV more special?

Yes. There are other things you can do to limit viewing on your TV and streaming apps after disabling ACR. I repeat, the steps will vary depending on the manufacturer, but it is useful to take a look at the privacy settings first. you’re launching your next show. The easiest way is to look for menus with labels like “Privacy,” “Ads,” “Data,” or “Personalization.”

If your TV has a voice remote or other built-in audio controls, consider disabling audio recording if this 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 will find these in the same submenu where you can disable ACR.

Finally, always practice good security hygiene with your TVs, as with any other internet-connected device. To limit cross-platform tracking, don’t connect unnecessary accounts to your TV and be sure to keep your TV’s software up to date. While software updates alone don’t affect your privacy, hackers can Access your Wi-Fi network (and your personal data).

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Sources:

Malwarebytes Laboratories: “Samsung TVs stop spying on viewers in Texas. Here’s how to disable ACR everywhere”
Consumer Reports: “How to Turn Off Smart TV Surveillance Features”