Texas sues major TV brands for spying on consumers via smart TVs

The Texas Attorney General’s Office has filed lawsuits against five major television manufacturers, Sony, Samsung, LG, Hisense, and TCL, alleging that the companies illegally spied on consumers through their Smart TVs using invasive surveillance technology known as Automatic Content Recognition (ACR).

The lawsuits, filed earlier this week, claim that the companies secretly recorded what users were watching, tracked connected devices, and transmitted that data without informed consent. Two of the firms named, TCL and Hisense, are Chinese-based, raising additional concerns due to China’s National Security Law, which mandates data sharing with the Chinese government.

Smart TV-based surveillance

At the heart of the case is ACR technology, software designed to identify content being displayed on a screen by capturing still frames or audio at high frequencies, up to every 500 milliseconds in some cases. These frames are fingerprinted and compared against massive content libraries to determine exactly what is being watched.

According to the lawsuits, the ACR systems were not limited to identifying shows from built-in apps. They also collected data from HDMI-connected devices like game consoles, cable boxes, Blu-ray players, and even laptops. This means that users streaming personal videos, reviewing home security footage, or screen-sharing via Apple AirPlay or Google Cast could unknowingly have their activity monitored and recorded. One diagram included in the complaints shows how captured frames are funneled through a matching engine and categorized into audience segments such as “sports” or “shopping”.

Data gathered through ACR is packaged, profiled, and sold to advertisers for targeted marketing across devices and platforms. This practice, prosecutors argue, amounts to mass surveillance for profit, an activity that Texas law prohibits without clear, informed consent from users.

The lawsuits argue that these manufacturers exploited their expansive reach to quietly turn home entertainment systems into real-time consumer surveillance tools. In several cases, the ACR feature was activated by default during initial setup, with vague disclosures buried in lengthy terms and conditions. The state claims this renders any supposed “consent” invalid under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton stressed this concern in his statement: “Companies, especially those connected to the Chinese Communist Party, have no business illegally recording Americans’ devices inside their own homes.”

The state is seeking injunctions to halt the collection and sale of data, along with civil penalties exceeding $1 million in each case. The petitions also demand more transparent privacy disclosures and enforcement of stricter opt-in mechanisms for any data tracking.

For now, consumers in Texas and beyond are urged to review their Smart TV privacy settings and disable ACR functions where possible. While disabling this feature varies by manufacturer, users can often find it under menu options labeled “Viewing Information,” “Interactivity,” or “Marketing Preferences.”