Adam Breeden/ZDNET
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**ZDNET’s In-Depth Takeaways:**
Modern smart televisions are far more sophisticated than the passive screens they once were; today, they quietly monitor audience behavior through a mechanism known as Automatic Content Recognition (ACR). This technology serves as the digital backbone for a multibillion-dollar targeted advertising industry that thrives on the continuous collection of user data. While deactivating ACR can guard your personal privacy, doing so often requires persistence and a detailed understanding of your television’s intricate settings menu.
Have you ever stopped to consider that each time you switch on your sleek, internet-connected TV, you are, metaphorically speaking, opening your living room door to an invisible observer? What once seemed like a simple entertainment ritual now doubles as a data exchange. Most leading television brands have integrated ACR—a form of ad-tracking software that records precisely what you watch, at what times, and sometimes even how long you watch. Every bit of visual content that crosses your screen, whether a cable broadcast, a Netflix series, or footage streamed from a gaming console, can be analyzed. This information is then transmitted to a central data repository controlled by the manufacturer or a partnered analytics firm. There, it undergoes interpretation and categorization, forming an exceptionally detailed portrait of your viewing preferences and tendencies.
The underlying motivation behind this technology is, unsurprisingly, profit. Insights from eMarketer revealed that in 2022 alone, advertisers invested an astounding $18.6 billion in smart TV ads—a figure that continues to grow at a rapid rate. This vast and lucrative ecosystem thrives on understanding consumer habits with microscopic precision. To picture ACR in action, imagine a perpetual and automated version of a song-recognition service like Shazam. Only instead of identifying melodies, it identifies television content, frame by frame, moment by moment. The technology functions by analyzing still images or micro-snippets of what appears on your screen, then cross-referencing them with an enormous database containing thousands of hours of video and millions of advertisements.
According to investigative research from **The Markup**, an ACR system can collect as many as 7,200 screenshots each hour—approximately two images every single second. This relentless observation arms companies and advertisers with behavioral data that can connect media engagement to identifiable personal attributes. That might include something as benign as an IP address or as specific as your full name, email, or even your physical street address. From these connections, marketing teams extrapolate insights not merely about what you enjoy watching but about who you are as a consumer—forming the foundation for hyper-personalized ad placements.
The ethical implications are concerning. In capable hands, ACR data is used to refine ad targeting and content recommendations; in less scrupulous ones, it poses security risks and opens pathways to potential misuse or even identity theft. The possibility that private information could be exploited without your awareness adds a disquieting dimension to what should be an innocent pastime. Yet the most unsettling part may be the quiet, nearly invisible way this surveillance occurs. Because ACR processes operate silently in the system’s background, many viewers remain oblivious to their presence. Disabling it, however, often proves cumbersome: it usually demands navigating through complex and sometimes deliberately confusing privacy menus, adjusting numerous toggles, and confirming multiple prompts.
If you, like many consumers, find the idea of constant tracking unwelcome, it is entirely possible—though not always simple—to turn it off. Below is a comprehensive, step-by-step guide outlining how to disable ACR on several of the most prominent smart TV brands. Be prepared for a bit of patience; the process may require multiple steps, but the resulting enhancement to your privacy is well worth the effort.
**How to Disable ACR on a Smart TV**
1. Press the **Home** button on your remote control to open the main interface.
2. Move left to access the sidebar menu, then choose **Privacy Choices**.
3. Enter **Terms & Conditions, Privacy Policy**, and locate **Viewing Information Services**. Make sure the checkbox is *disabled*—this action will deactivate ACR and related targeted advertising functions.
4. Confirm your selections by choosing **OK** at the bottom.
**For LG Models:**
1. Begin from the **Home** screen and open **Settings** using your remote.
2. Under **General**, access **System**, then choose **Additional Settings**.
3. Within **Additional Settings**, toggle the **Live Plus** option to “off.” This step stops ACR activity.
4. To minimize advertising data collection, select **Advertisement** within Additional Settings and enable **Limit AD Tracking**.
5. For extra privacy, navigate to **Home Settings** and uncheck both **Home Promotion** and **Content Recommendation** to prevent custom suggestions from appearing.
**For Sony Televisions:**
1. Access **Settings** and proceed to **Initial Setup**.
2. Scroll to **Samba Interactive TV**—Sony’s built-in ACR platform—and select **Disable**.
3. Further enhance privacy by navigating to **About → Ads**, and turning off **Ads Personalization**.
4. Optionally, you can completely deactivate the **Samba Services Manager**. Go to **Settings → Apps**, choose **Samba Services Manager**, then clear its cache, force stop the app, and finally, select **Disable**.
5. For Android-based Sony TVs, additional Chromecast data sharing should also be turned off in the **Google Home app** under **Send Chromecast device usage data and crash reports**.
**For Roku-Based TVs:**
1. Press the **Home** button, go to **Settings**, then **System** → **Privacy**.
2. Find **Smart TV Experience**, sometimes labeled **Viewing Information Services**, and disable the toggle.
3. To prevent interest-based ads, locate **Ad Tracking** and switch it off.
4. Under the same menu, deactivate **Content Recommendations** or **Personalized Content** to stop tailored suggestions.
**For TCL TVs:**
1. From the home screen, open **Settings → Privacy → Smart TV Experience**.
2. Turn off **Use Info from TV Inputs** to halt cross-input data capture.
3. Within the **Privacy** menu, go to **Advertising**, activate **Limit Ad Tracking**, and uncheck **Personalized Ads**.
4. Under **Microphone** settings, adjust both **Channel Microphone Access** and **Channel Permissions** according to your comfort level.
Keep in mind that disabling these features, while beneficial for protecting your digital footprint, may also reduce certain conveniences such as tailored recommendations or contextual home-screen suggestions. Because software updates occasionally restore default factory settings, it is wise to revisit and verify your privacy options regularly.
In essence, the ubiquity of ACR underscores a larger industry trend: the monetization of user behavior. Television manufacturers increasingly prioritize the immense profit potential of data analytics, often at the expense of user transparency. While some viewers may appreciate predictive recommendations, for most of us, the trade-off—exposure of personal content consumption details—is far from worthwhile. By consciously disabling ACR, you reclaim a measure of control and reestablish the intimate boundary between private life and digital surveillance. Watching TV should remain a personal experience, not a monitored transaction, and these settings allow you to preserve exactly that privacy.
*Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in 2024 and underwent its most recent comprehensive review, verification, and update in October 2025.*
Sourse: https://www.zdnet.com/article/you-should-disable-acr-on-your-tv-right-now-and-the-difference-it-makes-to-your-privacy/
