The major TV manufacturers use their devices to collect data on viewers’ viewing behavior. The technology behind this is called Automatic Content Recognition (ACR). The televisions generate hash values at regular intervals from the visible and audible content that is currently running on the sets. These values are also known as fingerprints.
A study by universities in England, Spain, and California has analyzed these data collections on Samsung and LG devices in particular. However, this does not mean that other manufacturers do not do the same. Samsung even uses its data collection to attract advertising customers and refers to it as Samsung Ads on its website.
According to the information there, Samsung televisions take a screenshot of the current image every 500 milliseconds. LG models even save a new hash value every 10 milliseconds. Samsung televisions forward this data to the company’s servers in a bundle once a minute, while LG televisions do this every 15 seconds.
Samsung advertises its data collection on its website under the title Samsung Ads. The company wants to attract companies to place adverts via the TV software.
Sam Singleton
On the company’s servers, this data is then compared with a database containing films, series, and games. If the server registers a match, the manufacturer knows what the viewer is currently watching. This allows companies to display suitable adverts themselves, but they can also sell the data on to advertising companies.
As the aforementioned study showed, these televisions not only create fingerprints of the current television program, but also of all content that is fed in via HDMI, including console games or DVDs, even if they contain private recordings.
However, you can refuse to consent to Automatic Content Recognition. On Samsung televisions, this is done in the settings via “Terms & Conditions & Privacy -> I agree to the display information services on this device”. Delete the tick in front of “I agree”.
The display information services may also be called “Viewing Information Services” at this point. LG calls its data collection “Live Plus”. For other manufacturers, it is best to take a look at the manual.
This article originally appeared on our sister publication PC-WELT and was translated and localized from German.
Author: Roland Freist, Contributor, PCWorld
Roland Freist is a freelance IT journalist covering topics related to Windows, applications, networks, security and the Internet.