A Northeastern University study evaluating 12 smart televisions across 10 brands determined that privacy opt-outs produce inconsistent protections depending on the underlying operating system. While platforms like Amazon Fire TV and LG webOS fully halted automatic content recognition, devices from Samsung, Roku, and Vizio continued transmitting data. Tracking techniques also differed across hardware, with devices employing audio, video, or hybrid fingerprinting methods, although third-party apps like Netflix largely avoided ACR scans.
Key points
Disabling viewing data tracking succeeds on select smart television platforms while remai…: Disabling viewing data tracking succeeds on select smart television platforms while remaining ineffective on others.
Manufacturers employ different fingerprinting technologies, relying on audio sampling, vi…: Manufacturers employ different fingerprinting technologies, relying on audio sampling, video capture, or a combination of both methods.
Over-the-air antenna transmissions are broadly tracked by ACR-enabled sets, but third-par…: Over-the-air antenna transmissions are broadly tracked by ACR-enabled sets, but third-party applications like YouTube generally avoid such monitoring.
Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1
The fact our TVs are gathering our information isn’t new, but what and how they’re tracking — and if we can stop it — is hard to figure out. Researchers at Northeastern University monitored 12 TVs from 10 manufacturers to test whether opting out of automatic content recognition (ACR) actually works. While opting out was effective for most TVs — including LG, Amazon Fire TV, a Sony Bravia running Google TV, and those with Vidaa OS (which can be found on TVs from Hisense, Toshiba, and smaller brands like the Supersonic used in the study) — Samsung and Roku kept sending some data. And Walmart’s Vizio TV continued on as if the opt-out hadn’t even happened.
Does opting out of TV tracking work?
A new study from Northeastern University shows that while most TV operating systems respect ACR opt-outs, not all do.
A new study from Northeastern University shows that while most TV operating systems respect ACR opt-outs, not all do.
ACR systems sample the audio or video playing on a TV, convert them into digital fingerprints, and send them…
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