What we found
Hisense Smart TV: FVIDAA OS captures 7,200 screenshots/hour of what you watch via ACR.
The separate Enhanced Viewing Service uses Nexxen ACR technology to capture audio fingerprints every 500 milliseconds, identifying every show, movie, channel, and advertisement watched. Nexxen has exclusive global access to this data through 2029, with exclusive rights to monetize CTV and native display advertising in North America. The website privacy policy makes no mention of ACR, Nexxen, or the TV-based surveillance — it only covers the vidaa.com website, creating a misleading impression of limited data collection.
Roku Smart TV: FYour TV is an ad platform that happens to show content. ACR watches everything you watch.
Firmware analysis shows Roku OS sends telemetry to multiple hardcoded logging endpoints (cooper.logs.roku.com, giga.logs.roku.com, scribe.logs.roku.com) regardless of ACR opt-out. Disabling ACR only stops content fingerprinting but channel usage data, app usage patterns, and device telemetry continue to be transmitted. The ACR opt-out gives users a false sense of privacy control.
Bravia 7 (XR70): FYou paid $2,000 for a Sony Bravia TV.
Sony Bravia ships with Samba TV ACR embedded in firmware — capturing a screenshot every 500ms (2 per second). Data includes show, season, episode, household ID, location, and timestamp. Texas AG Ken Paxton sued Sony in December 2025.
TCL Smart TV: DRoku TV OS inside. ACR captures what you watch and sells it to advertisers.
Texas Attorney General lawsuit (December 2024) alleges TCL unlawfully collected and monetized consumer viewing data through ACR technology. TCL's ACR collects information about everything displayed on screen and sells this data to advertisers and measurement companies.
M-Series Quantum SmartCast: DVizio now claims you have to choose to turn on viewing data collection.
FTC settlement (2017) proved Vizio installed ACR software on 11 million smart TVs that collected viewing data on a second-by-second basis without consumer knowledge or consent starting February 2014. The "Smart Interactivity" feature was turned on by default. Vizio collected over 100 billion data points per day from unknowing users. Settlement required $2.2 million payment.
OLED65C3PUA (C3 OLED evo): DLG says you can choose whether your TV watches what you watch.
LG ThinQ companion app (com.lgeha.nuts) requests 39 permissions including ACCESS_BACKGROUND_LOCATION, ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION, CAMERA, RECORD_AUDIO, READ_CONTACTS, WRITE_CONTACTS, READ_PHONE_STATE, and GET_ACCOUNTS. The app embeds 14 third-party trackers including Google AdMob, Facebook Analytics, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, and Treasure Data — all advertising and data monetization platforms. LG requires acceptance of ALL user agreements (viewing information, voice assistant, cross-device advertising) to use any smart TV features, making opt-in effectively mandatory.
Crystal UHD DU7200 (2024): DSamsung says it watches what you view on your TV to give you better recommendations.
Firmware-level ACR system captures screen fingerprints every 500ms and transmits to dedicated ACR servers (acr-us-prd.samsungcloud.tv, acr0.samsungcloudsolution.com, log-config.samsungacr.com). UC Davis/UCL research (IMC 2024) confirmed Samsung transmits up to 2x more ACR data than LG. The $46M class action settlement and Texas AG lawsuit (December 2025) established that this data is monetized for advertising — not merely used for recommendations. Samsung settled with Texas on February 26, 2026, agreeing to halt ACR collection without express consent.