These TV-makers are allegedly taking screenshots of what people watch, without consent

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

Content source

https://www.neowin.net/news/these-tv-makers-are-allegedly-taking-screenshots-of-what-people-watch-without-consent/

Consent is a pretty important topic in the tech space, and even more so on shared devices such as smart TVs. We recently learned that Microsoft and LG are receiving a lot of backlash for forcefully installing the Copilot app on the latter's TV without user consent or the ability to uninstall. Now, it seems like multiple TV manufacturers are being sued for committing an even more egregious sin.

The Texas Attorney General (AG) has sued five major TV manufacturers, namely:

• Sony
• Samsung
• LG
• HiSense
• TCL

The reason behind the lawsuit involves allegedly using Automated Content Recognition (ACR) technology to capture what customers are currently watching. According to the filing, ACR is capable of taking screenshots after every 500 milliseconds (that's two screenshots every second!), understand what the user is watching in real-time, and more importantly, send this data back to the TV-makers without explicit consent from the end-user.

 

[Jonny Quest]

With my newer Hisense TV, I need to look into its settings.

ACR is typically used by TV manufacturers to fingerprint their users so that they can tailor personalized content and ad experiences that they are more likely to watch. It is typically enabled by default on most modern smart TVs but can usually be disabled by the user in the device's privacy settings.

 

[Wrecker4923]

With my newer Hisense TV, I need to look into its settings.

Did you find it/anything?

 

[Jonny Quest]

Did you find it/anything?

I haven't done it yet, still doing some bookwork then getting dinner ready. I'll check into it tomorrow, and let you know what I find

 

[Sorrento]

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr I've been in the settings of my newish Panasonic TV which I really like a few months ago, & set privacy up in the beginning, whether that makes any difference or not is debatable & along with just about everything an update can & does often undo all things I've done, I'm not sure if the advertisers know this but any adverts or cohesion of any kind pushed at me usually have an equal & opposite effect, one day they will work that out so adaptation in is always in mind & I am in this regard an obstinate man I still do things as I choose within reason having still to live on planet Earth & so far I haven't got a way out of that. However: you can take a horse to water but you cannot force it to drink?

 

[Jonny Quest]

Did you find it/anything?

What I found were the Privacy App Settings -> Usage access/Market Feedback Agent, TV Agent Service plus others that I would need to research more, and the image below. I didn't see anything that was a blatant "Screenshot Agent". But in my case, I'm pretty much just using a Roku 4K stick, as I like its remote and layout better. So I need to confirm what Roku is doing and collecting.

 

[Divergent]

Texas lawmakers are suing Sony, Samsung, LG, HiSense, and TCL for allegedly capturing screenshots of user content every 500 milliseconds using Automated Content Recognition (ACR) technology without explicit consent.

This telemetry loop potentially exfiltrates real-time viewing data to manufacturers to facilitate user fingerprinting and ad targeting, with additional national security concerns cited regarding data flow to Chinese servers for brands like HiSense and TCL.

ACR is typically enabled by default across modern smart TV firmware but is generally accessible for opt-out within deep privacy menus. (I suspect the lawsuit centers on the 'unlawful' deception used in these initial setup toggles, or lack thereof). Verification of current opt-out status should be a standard protocol for any managed endpoint in a sensitive environment.

 

[Jonny Quest]

I guess the key word here is allegedly, until it is found out to be defiantly true from further investigation. But, if so, it should be more clearly defined and shown in the Privacy settings, and not be deceptively hidden behind an obscure setting.

 

[Divergent]

For mitigation, global toggles are often insufficient due to "dark patterns" in the UI (Samsung, for instance, reportedly requires over 15 clicks to fully opt-out compared to a single click for enrollment). On LG sets, you must specifically target the "Live Plus" toggle under System settings and deselect the "Viewing Information Agreement" in the user terms, be aware that disabling this frequently breaks native voice control and "AI" picture optimizations as a forced trade-off. For TCL and Hisense, the "Smart TV Experience" or "Use Info from TV Inputs" options must be manually de-provisioned. The most robust fix remains physical or logical network isolation, placing the set on a restricted VLAN with no outbound 443/80 access, while using a dedicated, hardened external player for all content.

 

[Jonny Quest]

For mitigation, global toggles are often insufficient due to "dark patterns" in the UI (Samsung, for instance, reportedly requires over 15 clicks to fully opt-out compared to a single click for enrollment). On LG sets, you must specifically target the "Live Plus" toggle under System settings and deselect the "Viewing Information Agreement" in the user terms, be aware that disabling this frequently breaks native voice control and "AI" picture optimizations as a forced trade-off. For TCL and Hisense, the "Smart TV Experience" or "Use Info from TV Inputs" options must be manually de-provisioned. The most robust fix remains physical or logical network isolation, placing the set on a restricted VLAN with no outbound 443/80 access, while using a dedicated, hardened external player for all content.

And when I first set up my TV, I was told on a couple of? settings that I couldn't disable it, so I thought I'd check it out again after the initial set up.
That is my other concern, is disabling one thing going to disable another feature that may be helpful or useful, as you put it a trade off?

 

[Divergent]

And when I first set up my TV, I was told on a couple of? settings that I couldn't disable it, so I thought I'd check it out again after the initial set up.
That is my other concern, is disabling one thing going to disable another feature that may be helpful or useful, as you put it a trade off?

Manufacturers often tightly couple privacy-invasive services with core smart functionality to discourage users from opting out.

On LG firmware, for example, disabling the "Live Plus" toggle and the "Viewing Information Agreement" frequently breaks native voice control and integrated "AI" picture optimization features. (This is a classic "forced choice" dark pattern where you lose the premium processing you paid for if you choose to stop the screenshot exfiltration). For TCL and Hisense, similar de-provisioning of the "Smart TV Experience" can limit the cross-app content recommendations and "helpful" viewing shortcuts.

If these features are essential to your daily use, you are essentially trapped in a telemetry loop. The only way to maintain a high-quality viewing experience without the associated privacy cost is to use a hardened external player (like an Apple TV or Nvidia Shield) and keep the television itself completely disconnected from the network.

 

[Kwan ST]

I have a Hisense Tv for a few months now and first thing I did was to disable it to go online thru router.
I use fire tv stick to watch my online content since I'm able to sideload apps

 

[Marko :)]

The first thing I did when setting up my LG TVs was to decline everything they offered me. When I came to the privacy policy and those check boxes, I checked one by one until it let me continue the setup. Afterwards, I set up ControlD on TV to block ads and tracking, then rooted it and installed YouTube Ad-Free.

 

[Sorrento]

It must get very boring to watch me watching Star Treks of various, kinds very often or films from the 1950s, UK TV series from the 70s, enjoy

Edit: He's now watching the original Time Machine film from the 60's for the 95th time, is this guy for real or what?? (I think the probability is he will watch Day of The Triffids again later too)

 

[BSONE]

More money for the lawyers on both sides of the fence. Going forward if it clarifies privacy agreements and makes it opt out by default fair enough. But someone will have to pay for it, which inevitably is the consumer because there is an added cost to the manufacturer.