American consumers who own smart TVs from manufacturers like Sony, Samsung, LG, Hisense, and TCL are being warned that their viewing activities are being secretly tracked and transmitted to remote servers. This raises significant concerns over privacy violations and data security. A lawsuit has been filed with the Texas Attorney General over the use of Automated Content Recognition (ACR) technology by these companies, which captures user behavior and transmits the data without consent.
Ken Paxton, the Attorney General of Texas, has expressed particular concern about TCL and Hisense, two Chinese TV brands, due to their use of ACR technology. This system collects data about viewers approximately every 500 milliseconds, sending information about American consumers to servers located in foreign countries. The frequency and scale of this data harvesting are alarming, raising fears that it may be used for surveillance or even espionage.
The collected data is not just a minor breach of privacy; it has financial value. Advertisers purchase this information through bidding processes, which generates significant revenue for TV manufacturers. The prospect of foreign governments, particularly those with close ties to the Chinese Communist Party, accessing this data raises further concerns about potential surveillance and information theft.
LG has dismissed these allegations as speculation, claiming that the matter is legal and cannot be fully discussed in public. However, this is not the first time a TV manufacturer has faced legal action over data collection. In 2016-2017, Vizio was fined $2.2 million by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the New Jersey Attorney General for harvesting data from 11 million users through its “Smart Interactivity” feature. This tool collected information about what consumers were watching, regardless of whether it was streaming content, DVDs, or cable TV.
The case against ACR technology could end similarly, with manufacturers facing heavy penalties for violating consumer privacy. Critics argue that such tracking tools are intrusive, deceptive, and potentially harmful, violating both privacy rights and consumer trust. As this lawsuit progresses, it may set a precedent for stricter regulations on smart TV data collection, potentially leading to larger penalties for manufacturers who engage in such practices.
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