The Verge published guidance on Saturday explaining how owners of smart televisions can limit the amount of information their sets collect about them. The outlet's report focuses on automatic content recognition, or ACR, a technology that identifies what is playing on screen and feeds that viewing data onward, according to The Verge.
The advice arrives alongside a wave of coverage questioning how much smart TVs observe. CNET addressed the same question directly, asking whether a television is spying on its owner and offering fixes. Law Commentary reported that LG smart TVs have been accused of capturing conversations and scanning devices located inside homes. Kotaku described one owner removing the microphone and Wi-Fi hardware from a new LG television, quoting the person's complaint that buyers do not truly own the device.
Taken together, the reports point to a common thread: the tracking is built into how these televisions operate rather than being an optional extra, and the settings that govern it are not always obvious to the people using the sets.
What to watch next: whether LG or other manufacturers respond to the accusations, and whether regulators take up the questions raised about in-home recording and device scanning.
