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The leading television brands deploy their devices to gather data regarding viewers’ habits using a technology known as Automatic Content Recognition (ACR). This system works by generating hash values, also called fingerprints, from the audio and visual content displayed on the screen at regular intervals.
Research conducted by academic institutions across England, Spain, and California focused specifically on the data collection practices of Samsung and LG devices. However, this does not imply that other manufacturers do not engage in similar data monitoring. Samsung, in particular, leverages this information to attract advertising clients, branding it as Samsung Ads on their official site.
As reported, Samsung TVs capture a screenshot of the current image every 500 milliseconds, while LG models generate a new hash every 10 milliseconds. These devices transmit the collected data to their respective servers—Samsung sends a batch once every minute, whereas LG forwards data every 15 seconds.
This data is then cross-referenced with extensive databases of movies, TV shows, and games stored on the company servers. When a match is found, the manufacturer becomes aware of exactly what content the viewer is watching. This enables targeted advertising displays, which can be used for direct marketing, or the data can be sold to third-party ad agencies.
The study further reveals that these devices not only produce fingerprints of the current program but also record all input from external devices such as gaming consoles, DVD players, or private recordings, even if the content is personal or sensitive.
Users have the option to decline participation in Automatic Content Recognition. On Samsung TVs, this can be managed through the settings menu by navigating to “Terms & Conditions > Privacy – > I agree to the display information services on this device” and removing the selection. Similar options may exist under different labels like “Viewing Information Services,” and LG refers to its data collection as “Live Plus.” Checking the user manual for specific instructions from other manufacturers is advisable.
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