Tuesday, March 3, 2026

Texas sues TV manufacturers over Automated Content Recognition (ACR) technology and Wins

 These quotes from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton:
“When families buy a television, they don’t expect it to spy on them. They don’t expect their viewing habits to be packaged and auctioned to advertisers. Yet Samsung deceptively guides consumers to activate ACR and buries any explanation of what that means in dense legal jargon that few will read or understand"
“Texans must be fully informed about whether their data is collected and be in full control of how it’s used. The changes outlined in this agreement help accomplish both of those aims and are an important step forward in reforming smart TV manufacturers’ data collection practices,”  

The suits were filed against Samsung, Sony, LG, Hisense, and TCL Technology Group. Samsung has reached a settlement.

Automated Content Recognition:
This software can capture 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. The companies then sell that consumer information to target ads across platforms for a profit.

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