Stop Your Smart TV from Tracking What You Watch
Chances are that your smart TV is tracking everything that you watch right now. It is not only tracking TV shows but your gaming, played ads and more. Why? Generally, it is monitoring all of this information for advertisers. The technology is called Automatic Content Recognition, and although it is pretty cool that technology can recognize your every interest, it can be a little unsettling, too. If this is troubling to you, there is a way to shut it off.
The first option to stop this tracking is to disconnect your TV from the Internet. Without an Internet connection, your TV will not be able to send your information to anyone, but it also will not be able to use the apps to stream movies or shows, either.
A more practical way would be to turn off the automatic content recognition feature itself. Shutting off the function will depend on the TV that you own. Here’s how for three popular brands:
LG TVs: Press Settings on your remote. Then go to All Settings > General > LivePlus and turn it off.
Samsung smart TVs: Go to Menu > Settings > Support > Terms & Policies, then Turn off the “Viewing Information Services” and “Interest-Based Advertising” options.
Sony smart TVs: Re-run the TV’s setup wizard. On the home screen go to Settings > Initial Setup. Click through the wizard. When you reach the Samba “Interactive TV” user agreements, disable this setting.
You may also want to look into disabling ad tracking on your set-top box device.