A new study has found that popular smart TVs from Samsung and LG are constantly monitoring users’ screen activity, taking screenshots as often as every 10 milliseconds. This is called Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) and it captures images and audio from your TV to see what’s on the screen and then uses that data for targeted ads.
The study by a research group led by Yash Vekaria from University of California, looked at how ACR works on two of the most used smart TV brands. Their findings on arXiv showed that Samsung smart TVs take screen events every half second and LG takes screenshots every 10 milliseconds. This is fast enough to monitor not just TV broadcasts but also when the device is used as an external monitor for computers or gaming consoles.
The data is then analyzed using AI to compare it to a massive media library to figure out what’s on the screen. Advertisers can then serve ads to users based on their viewing habits. Crucially, the researchers also found that ACR works differently by region; in the UK, TVs didn’t send data during broadcasts, while in the US, data was sent even during HDMI usage.
Thorin Klosowski from the Electronic Frontier Foundation told New Scientist that ACR is opaque. “Consent for this level of surveillance is buried deep in the terms and conditions you agree to during setup, so I highly doubt most people are aware of the extent of the tracking.”
You can opt out of ACR tracking but it’s cumbersome, requiring multiple menu selections or in some cases 37 clicks on Samsung devices. Even then it defaults to tracking unless you actively turn it off. This is a big problem for privacy especially since sensitive content can be captured without the user’s knowledge.
This is the first study to look at second-party tracking by smart TV platforms themselves, as opposed to third-party trackers which had been the focus of previous privacy studies. As ACR becomes more common, experts are debating its impact on consumer privacy and calling for clearer consent and stronger opt-out options.
Now the question is how much control do we really have over our smart devices and how much data is being shared without our consent. Smart TVs are a staple of modern homes, the balance between innovation and privacy is the big issue for consumers and regulators.
