Your smart TV is taking snapshots of everything you watch, then selling the data

August 5, 2026

By Kim Komando

Smart TVs grab snapshots of whatever’s on your screen, several times a minute. Your shows. Your home movies. Even what you cast from your phone. Then they sell your viewing profile to advertisers.

It’s called ACR, automatic content recognition. And it’s on by default.

🔧 Where to find it

Every brand hides this setting somewhere different, and none of them make it obvious. Samsung tucks it under “Viewing Information Services.” LG calls it “Live Plus.” Vizio buries it inside “Reset & Admin.” Whatever it’s labeled, it’s always sitting somewhere in your privacy or settings menu.

Here’s my step-by-step guide for turning it off on every major TV brand.

⚖️ This has happened before

This isn’t hypothetical. Back in 2017, Vizio paid the FTC $2.2 million for tracking 11 million TVs without permission. Samsung, LG, Sony and TCL all still run the same kind of tracking today. It’s just legal now because it’s disclosed, buried on a settings page you never read.

So poke around in your TV’s privacy settings, or use the guide above to go straight to the fix. Your TV works exactly the same either way, minus the part where it’s selling your evenings to advertisers.

🎯 Send this to someone who still thinks their TV is just a TV.

📱 Text-worthy: Your smart TV snapshots your screen several times a minute and sells the data to advertisers. It’s called ACR and it’s on by default. Turn it off in your privacy settings, your TV works exactly the same, minus the creepy ads.