TV Manufacturers Admit They Cannot Fully Disable User Data Collection
The Verge posed 17 detailed questions to television and streaming device manufacturers regarding user data collection practices. Seven companies responded: Amazon, Apple, Google, LG, Roku, Samsung and TCL. Panasonic, Sony and Vizio declined to participate, while contact with Hisense proved unsuccessful.
The primary focus of the inquiry was Automatic Content Recognition (ACR), a technology that identifies viewed content to enable targeted advertising and audience analytics. Samsung, LG and Amazon disable ACR by default. Samsung claims that disabling the feature results in deletion of previously collected data from its servers. LG identifies content through audio fingerprints and, when ACR is enabled, determines user location via nearby Wi-Fi networks. Voice command transcripts at LG may be stored without encryption.
Google activates collection of diagnostics, personalized recommendations and advertising data under default settings. Google TV transmits IP addresses and data about neighboring Wi-Fi networks, enabling location inference. Apple confirmed that Apple TV 4K does not use ACR or capture screen images.
Amazon, Google, Samsung and Roku explicitly acknowledged that complete cessation of data transmission is impossible. Devices from Amazon, Google, Roku, Samsung and TCL retain portions of data while offline and transmit them upon reconnection. A Northeastern University study found that Vizio televisions continued sending data even after users opted out, with the company describing the transmissions as operational telemetry. Data flows from Samsung and Roku decreased after opt-out but did not stop entirely.
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