Your Smart TV May Be Screenshotting Your Screen Every Half Second

A 2024 study by researchers from UC Davis, University College London, and Universidad Carlos III de Madrid analyzed network traffic from Samsung and LG smart TVs, focusing on Automatic Content Recognition (ACR). ACR functions similarly to Shazam for TVs, recording displayed content or audio at regular intervals and comparing it to a content database to identify what is being watched.

The research discovered that ACR remained active regardless of the source—live broadcasts, streaming apps, or connected devices like game consoles or laptops via HDMI. Samsung's TVs transmitted this data to company servers approximately once per minute, while LG's TVs did so roughly every 15 seconds. Disabling ACR proved challenging, requiring navigation through multiple advertising and tracking settings across various menus.

Attempts to opt out yielded inconclusive results, with the data requests from regulators proving vague and not reflecting the volume of data observed being transmitted. In response to these findings, regulators have taken action. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against five major manufacturers—Samsung, Sony, LG, Hisense, and TCL—in December 2025, accusing them of capturing screenshots of users' screens every 500 milliseconds.

Samsung and LG both settled in 2026, agreeing to cease collecting ACR data without user consent and to provide transparent disclosure screens. Legal proceedings against the remaining manufacturers are ongoing. Unlike typical app-based tracking, ACR operates at the device level, beneath individual apps, capturing all content displayed on the TV screen, not just what is watched through the TV's smart features.

This broader scope represents a more extensive tracking than most users anticipate when considering smart TV data collection. To address this, users should check their TV's settings for terms related to viewing data, interest-based advertising, or the brand's specific ACR feature (e.g., LG's "Live Plus") and disable each option, as a single toggle may not suffice.

For those with TVs supporting it, using only HDMI connections without the TV’s built-in smart features and internet can prevent ACR from transmitting data. Following the settlements, users should verify their TV's current consent screens, as manufacturers continue to update disclosure requirements in response to evolving state actions.