Smart TVs keep a close record of what their owners watch. They do it with Automatic Content Recognition, or ACR, which captures screenshots of whatever is on screen every few seconds, and sometimes several times a second, according to an Engadget report published Oct. 18, 2026.
Those captures let manufacturers identify shows, movies, games and ads, whether they play through built-in apps, streaming services or connected devices such as gaming consoles. Engadget compared the system to Shazam, since it needs only a snippet to recognize content. TVs also gather technical details including IP addresses, Wi-Fi information and app usage patterns.
Voice-enabled remotes and assistants add short audio snippets to the pile. Manufacturers say ACR revenue helps keep TV prices low, and analysts predict the ACR market will reach $23.37 billion by 2034, Engadget reported.
Texas and a new class action
The data collection has already landed in court. In December 2025, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued five TV makers, including Samsung, alleging that their ACR systems collected viewing information without adequate consent. Samsung reached an agreement with Texas on Feb. 26, 2026. Under that deal, the company must stop collecting or processing ACR viewing data from Texas consumers without their express consent, and it has to update its TVs with clear and conspicuous disclosures and consent screens.
On Oct. 6, three consumers filed a proposed class action against Samsung Electronics America in federal court in Northern California, Courthouse News Service reported. They claim Samsung’s ACR system captures the screen about twice a second and can recognize content from streaming services, cable, antenna, HDMI devices and game consoles. The plaintiffs say that viewing activity is built into profiles tied to identifiers and used for commercial purposes. The allegations have not been tested in court.
Samsung isn’t the only target of scrutiny. Gamers Nexus posted a video running more than two hours on LG smart TVs, claiming the sets could record audio even when they appeared to be off, sent details about the home network to LG’s servers and logged background audio from voice features. LG disputed claims that its TVs continuously record conversations. In a Sept. 12 statement, the company said speech-to-text processing begins only when a user activates a voice feature, and that ACR, voice recognition and interest-based advertising are optional and “not enabled by default.”
The Verge looked at the wider industry after the Gamers Nexus video and concluded that every TV company tracks what owners watch unless they opt out. ACR turns snippets of audio or video into digital fingerprints and sends them to a database, where they’re matched to identify the program, game or ad.
How to turn ACR off
The steps differ by brand, and switching ACR off may affect other features. Engadget gave these paths:
- Sony: Settings > All Settings, then turn off Samba Interactive TV.
- Samsung: Settings > All Settings > General & Privacy > Terms & Privacy, then turn off Viewing Information Services and Interest-based Advertising.
- LG: Settings > General > System > Additional Settings, turn off Live Plus, then enable Limit Ad Tracking under Advertisement.
Switching it off once may not be enough. Engadget advised checking the settings again from time to time, because TVs could re-enable ACR after software updates, and it cited Wirecutter’s finding that some TVs keep capturing ACR data while offline and upload it the next time they connect. That means unplugging the TV from the internet doesn’t fully solve the problem unless ACR is also turned off.
Regulators have dealt with this before. In 2017, Vizio paid $2.2 million to settle charges from the FTC and the New Jersey attorney general that it tracked viewing histories on 11 million TVs without clear disclosure, and it agreed to get express consent before collecting and sharing that data.
More rules are coming. Kentucky’s HB 692, signed in April 2026, bars companies from collecting ACR data without a consumer’s consent. It takes effect July 1, 2027.