Tip: Stop surveillance by smart TVs from Vizio, Samsung and LG

In light of the case

against Vizio for spying on customers via smart TVs

., an article by

Consumer Reports< /p>

offers several steps to prevent your smart TV from spying on you with automatic content recognition. These steps work with Vizio, Samsung, and LG TV models. Here's how to stop surveillance and protect your privacy.

User Monitoring

If a smart TV maker wants to track your viewing habits, they're supposed to ask your permission first. But Vizio enabled tracking without explicit permission. The

technology

, called Automatic Content Recognition (ACR), detects the content you read and sells it to big data brokers, who then share it with marketers. p>

Vizio TV models

Vizio calls its content tracking feature "Smart Interactivity." In the future, it will be called visualization data. Recently, the manufacturer updated their privacy policy to indicate that this feature has been disabled. Turning it off manually depends on the model you have.

As almost all Vizio TVs use the SmartCast system provided by Google, you will need to download

the Vizio app

on your smartphone to control these settings. In this app in

Settings > Reset & amp; Administrator

. Use the sliding button on the screen to turn it off.

Older Vizio models and D-Series TVs use the Vizio Internet Apps platform, so the process is slightly different. In the Vizio app, navigate to

Settings > Reset & amp; Administrator

. Highlight

Intelligent interactivity

and press the right arrow to turn it off.

Samsung SmartTV

Samsung TV models

In newer Samsung models, click the icon

Settings

in the main menu, then find

Assistance

. Under Support, scroll down to

Terms & Policies

. You will see several options, such as Viewing Information Services, Speech Recognition Services, Nuance Speech Recognition, and Privacy Notices. You can choose not to accept any of them. Then disable Internet advertising in the same place.

Note that if you disable voice functions, your voice interaction with the TV will be affected, but if you simply disable information services, cvoice -commands will not be affected.

On older Samsung models, you'll find the ACR commands in the Smart Hub menu. Go to

Settings > Support > Terms & Policy

. Select

SyncPlus and Marketing

and disable the feature. If you choose to disable voice recognition services, your voice commands will not be sent to a third party for processing.

LG TV models

In the new webOS templates, go to the main menu and select

Settings > General

. Look for the sub-menu titled

About this TV

. Click on

User Agreements

and you will see three options: Information Display, Personal Advertisement, and Voice Information. You can turn them all off. On older LG TV models, go to

Settings > Options > LivePlus

. Then turn it off.

Conclusion

consumer reports

indicate that even with ACR disabled, smart TV manufacturers still collect certain non-identifying information from your TV. The companies claim this is necessary to provide basic television functions. But at least you can disable most monitoring.