How to Stop Your Smart TV from Tracking What You Watch

Why Your Smart TV is Spying on You (and How to Stop It)

Did you know that your smart TV tracks almost everything you watch? Whether you are streaming a movie, playing a video game, or watching cable, your TV uses a technology called Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) to analyze the pixels on your screen. It matches this "fingerprint" against a massive database to identify the show, movie, or ad you are viewing, then sells this data to advertisers. Fortunately, you can shut down this tracking in under five minutes. Here is how to disable ACR on the most popular smart TV brands.

How to Turn Off Tracking on Samsung Smart TVs

Samsung calls its tracking features "Viewing Information Services." To turn them off, follow these steps:

• Go to Settings or All Settings from your home screen.
• Select Support and then navigate to Terms & Privacy (or Terms & Conditions).
• Look for Viewing Information Services (sometimes listed as SyncPlus and Marketing).
• Uncheck the box or toggle the switch to Disable this feature. You can still use your smart TV apps without this turned on.

How to Disable Viewing Data Collection on LG TVs

LG's webOS platform uses ACR to power its personalized recommendation engine. Here is how to disable it:

• Press the Settings button on your remote (the gear icon) and select All Settings.
• Navigate to General and select System.
• Click on Additional Settings and look for User Agreements.
• Locate Viewing Information (or Voice Information if you want to stop voice-data tracking) and toggle it to Off.

How to Stop Tracking on Roku TVs and Streaming Sticks

Roku devices have a specific setting to disable ACR, which they refer to as "Information from TV Inputs."

• Press the Home button on your Roku remote.
• Scroll down and select Settings, then click on Privacy.
• Select Smart TV Experience.
• Uncheck the option that says Use Info from TV Inputs. This stops Roku from tracking what you watch via antenna or HDMI-connected devices.
• Go back to the Privacy menu, select Advertising, and check the box for Limit Ad Tracking.

How to Turn Off ACR on Amazon Fire TVs

Amazon Fire TV devices track your app usage and viewing habits to build a profile for targeted advertising. Turn it off with these steps:

• Navigate to the Settings menu on your Fire TV home screen.
• Select Preferences, then click on Privacy Settings.
• Find Device Usage Data and turn it Off.
• Find Collect App Usage Data and turn it Off.
• Find Interest-Based Ads and toggle it to Off.

How to Disable Tracking on Google TV and Android TV

Google TV and Android TV devices (like Sony TVs or Chromecast) collect data to customize your home screen recommendations. Here is how to limit this data collection:

• Open the Settings menu (the gear icon in the top right corner).
• Select Privacy and then click on Ads.
• Toggle on the option to Opt out of Ads Personalization (or Delete Advertising ID).
• To stop Google from tracking your app history, go to Settings > Accounts & Sign In, select your account, click on Google Account Sync, and adjust your activity controls.