Your smart TV is taking screenshots of your screen every half second. Those screenshots - which could capture passwords, banking information, or anything else on your display - get sent back to the manufacturer. Then they sell that data to advertisers.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton just forced Samsung to stop this practice. But only for Texas residents. The rest of us are still being watched.
What Actually Happened in Texas
Samsung settled a lawsuit requiring the company to obtain explicit consent before collecting any viewing data from Texas consumers. The settlement came after Paxton’s office secured a temporary restraining order in January 2026 blocking Samsung’s data collection entirely.
According to the lawsuit, Samsung’s Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) system captures “screenshots of a user’s television display every 500 milliseconds, monitor viewing activity in real time, and transmit that information back to the company without the user’s knowledge or consent.”
Samsung then monetizes this data by “selling it to target ads to them across platforms for profit.”
The settlement requires Samsung to:
- Stop collecting ACR data without express consumer consent
- Create “clear and conspicuous” disclosure and consent screens
- Avoid “dark patterns” that manipulate users into accepting surveillance
Samsung Isn’t Alone
Texas has filed similar lawsuits against four other TV manufacturers: Sony, LG, Hisense, and TCL. According to IAPP, Paxton secured temporary restraining orders against both Hisense and Samsung.
The lawsuits allege these companies embedded ACR systems that collect detailed viewing data without adequate disclosure. The practice allegedly required “over 200 clicks across multiple menus” to even find the privacy settings - a deliberate obstruction of consumer choice.
Paxton’s office used the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act (DTPA) to pursue these cases - the same statute that previously secured multi-billion-dollar settlements against Meta and Google.
The National Security Angle
Texas’s enforcement action specifically highlighted concerns about Chinese-owned companies accessing American viewing data. Both Hisense and TCL are Chinese-owned, and under China’s National Security Law, the government can compel companies to hand over data.
Your viewing habits might seem innocuous, but aggregated behavioral data from millions of households has intelligence value. What people watch, when they watch it, and how their behavior changes over time reveals patterns that go far beyond advertising.
What Is ACR and How Does It Work?
ACR - Automatic Content Recognition - identifies what’s on your screen through audio or visual “fingerprinting.” The technology matches captured content against databases to determine exactly what you’re watching.
This works for:
- Streaming services - Even if you’re watching Netflix or Disney+
- Live TV - Cable, satellite, or antenna broadcasts
- Connected devices - Anything plugged into HDMI, including game consoles, cable boxes, and DVD players
- Any displayed content - Including anything that appears on your screen
The 500-millisecond screenshot interval means the system captures everything with high fidelity. If you display your bank account on your TV, pull up a password, or show any sensitive information - it gets captured and transmitted.
How to Disable ACR on Your TV
The Samsung settlement only applies to Texas. For everyone else, you need to manually disable ACR. Here’s how, by brand:
Samsung
- Press the Home button on your remote
- Go to Privacy Choices → Terms & Conditions, Privacy Policy
- Turn off “Viewing Information Services”
LG
- Press the Settings (gear icon) button
- Go to All Settings → General → System → Additional Settings
- Turn off “Live Plus”
- Turn on “Limit Ad Tracking”
Sony (Google TV)
- Press the Home button
- Go to Settings → Device Preferences → Usage & Diagnostics
- Turn off everything
Alternatively:
- Go to Settings → System Preferences → Samba Interactive TV
- Select Disable
Vizio
- Press the Menu button
- Go to System → Reset & Admin
- Turn off “Viewing Data”
Roku TVs
- Press the Home button
- Go to Settings → Privacy → Smart TV Experience
- Turn on “Limit ad tracking”
Also consider:
- Go to Settings → Network
- Turn off “Bandwidth saver” (which enables some tracking features)
Amazon Fire TV
- Go to Settings → Preferences → Privacy Settings
- Disable “Device Usage Data”
- Disable “Collect App Usage Data”
- Disable “Interest-Based Ads”
The Nuclear Option: Disconnect Your TV
The most effective privacy measure is also the simplest: don’t connect your smart TV to the internet at all.
Use an external streaming device like an Apple TV, Roku stick, or Fire TV stick instead. You’ll still have streaming capability, but the TV itself can’t phone home with your viewing data.
This eliminates ACR tracking entirely. Your smart TV becomes a dumb display - exactly what you’re paying for when you buy a television.
Why This Matters Beyond Texas
Texas can force consent requirements on manufacturers, but compliance is geographically limited. Samsung’s settlement doesn’t require them to obtain consent from consumers in California, New York, or anywhere else.
Without federal privacy legislation, each state must fight these battles individually. Meanwhile, the default across most of America remains: buy a TV, get surveilled.
The Texas settlement is a win, but a narrow one. For the estimated 400 million smart TVs in American homes, most remain configured to capture and transmit viewing data by default.
The Bottom Line
Your TV takes screenshots every 500 milliseconds and sells what it sees. Texas forced Samsung to stop - but only in Texas. If you’re elsewhere, the settings above are your only protection. Or just pull the ethernet cable and use an external streaming device instead.