AUSTIN — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has issued a consumer alert both warning Texans about the dangers of smart TVs spying on them, as well as providing general guidance as to how to turn off the invasive technology.
Last week, Ken Paxton sued five major TV companies, including some with alleged ties to the Chinese Communist Party, for spying on Texans by using Automated Content Recognition (ACR) technology.
Paxton
“I’d urge Texans TV shopping for Christmas to avoid purchasing a television that allows Big Tech to illegally collect your data,” said Paxton. “All across Texas, there are smart TVs acting as uninvited, invisible digital invaders. It's vital that all Texans know that your TV may be monitoring and recording everything that happens on your screen.”
The companies sued were Sony, Samsung, LG, Hisense, and TCL Technology Group. Paxton has also secured a TRO against Hisense that stops the company from collecting, using, selling, sharing, disclosing, or transferring the data.
Hisense uses ACR technology to capture every sound and image playing on its TVs every 500 milliseconds without the knowledge and consent of consumers, which is an egregious and unlawful violation of Texans’ privacy, according to the attorney general.
The ACR data and consumer information is then sold by the companies for a profit. The Chinese Communist Party, moreover, has access to all of the ACR data collected, Paxton asserts.
While all smart TVs are different, below is general guidance that could be used to turn off certain data collection by some of the TV companies currently being sued by the attorney general:
Press the Home button on your remote control to access the main menu.
Navigate to and select Settings.
In settings, find and select General, System or Intelligence settings from the list of options.
Once new options appear, find and select Privacy, Terms & Conditions, Privacy Choices or a similar option.
Inside the privacy settings, look for options called Smart TV Experience, Viewing Information Services, or similar.
Toggle these options OFF to disable ACR.
There may be additional options in privacy settings to disable personalized advertising. These will often be called Personalized Ads, Interest-Based Advertising, Content Recommendation or similar.
Paxton’s office also says some smart TVs might also have “Do Not Sell My Personal Data” options.
