Texas Sues 5 Smart TV Giants Over Alleged “Spying” and Deceptive Data Collection

The state of Texas has filed lawsuits against five major smart TV manufacturers, accusing them of deceptive practices related to the use of technology that monitors and records consumers’ viewing habits in real-time.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed the suits, alleging that Sony, Samsung, LG, Hisense, and TCL Technology Group Corporation are using Automated Content Recognition (ACR) technology to capture real-time viewing data without adequate consumer consent, thereby violating the state’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

ACR is a technology embedded in most smart TVs that is used to identify what is being watched on the screen. While manufacturers promote its use for recommending content, the lawsuits claim its primary function is to collect and sell user data in bulk to advertisers.

The lawsuits assert that families “don’t expect their viewing habits [to be] packaged and auctioned to advertisers.” The manufacturers allegedly deceive consumers by directing them to turn ACR on while burying the explanation of what this means in “dense legal jargon that few will read or understand.”

The technology can collect data on more than just streaming services. It can capture information from devices connected via HDMI, such as personal laptops, watched YouTube videos, and even streams from security or doorbell cameras. Furthermore, ACR is alleged to be capable of collecting data even when the TV is offline, transmitting it to the company when the television is reconnected to the internet (such as during firmware updates).

The collected ACR data, combined with metadata, allows the companies to infer “highly personal attributes” related to consumers’ race, sex, or religious and political beliefs, all of which fall under sensitive personal data categories protected under Texas’s state privacy law.

The lawsuit highlights the financial motivation behind these practices, noting that by 2021, Vizio (which was fined $2.2 million by the FTC and the New Jersey Attorney General in 2017 for similar practices) reported that a greater portion of its profits came from selling consumer data collected through ACR than from selling the televisions themselves.

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