TL;DR: On February 26, 2026, Samsung became the first smart TV maker to settle Texas's ACR surveillance lawsuit. The company agreed to stop collecting viewing data without explicit consent and to rewrite its privacy screens to be "clear and conspicuous." Sony, LG, Hisense, and TCL are still fighting in court. Hisense is under a restraining order. The other three are free to keep capturing screenshots of your screen every 500 milliseconds, until they lose or settle too. Here's the full status of all five cases and how to disable ACR on any brand.
The Scorecard: All Five Lawsuits
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued all five manufacturers on December 15, 2025. Three months later, here's where each case stands:
Samsung: SETTLED
Status: Settled February 26, 2026
Terms: Must obtain "express consent" before collecting ACR data. Required to rewrite consent screens to be clear and conspicuous. No monetary penalty disclosed.
What it means: Texas residents get real opt-in choice. Everyone else? Business as usual.
Hisense: RESTRAINED
Status: Under TRO since December 17, 2025
Terms: Blocked from collecting, selling, or sharing ACR data from Texas consumers
What it means: First-ever court order against a TV maker for ACR. Case still active.
Sony: ACTIVE
Status: Lawsuit ongoing, no restraining order
What it means: Free to continue ACR data collection while fighting the case
LG: ACTIVE
Status: Lawsuit ongoing, no restraining order
What it means: Free to continue ACR data collection while fighting the case
TCL: ACTIVE
Status: Lawsuit ongoing, no restraining order
What it means: Free to continue ACR data collection while fighting the case
What Samsung Actually Agreed To
The February 26 settlement forces Samsung to make three changes for Texas consumers:[1]
- No collection without express consent. Samsung must halt all ACR data collection from Texans who haven't explicitly opted in. No more burying enrollment in setup flows.
- Rewrite consent screens. The company must update its smart TVs with "clear and conspicuous" disclosures. The old system (one click to enroll, 200+ clicks to find privacy settings) is done.
- Consumers in control. Paxton's office said the deal ensures Texans "can make informed decisions about data collection."
What's missing from the settlement: money. No fine. No penalty. Samsung gets to walk away by fixing its consent flows: something it could have done years ago without being sued.
"Texans must be fully informed about whether their data is collected and be in full control of how it's used," Paxton said in announcing the agreement.[1]
Paxton also commended Samsung for being "one of the first smart TV companies in the world to make these important changes." Which is a polite way of saying: the others haven't.
Why This Fight Matters
Here's what every smart TV with ACR does, whether you know it or not:[2]
- Captures a screenshot of your screen every 500 milliseconds: two per second
- Matches those screenshots against a content database to identify what you're watching
- Sends that viewing data to the manufacturer and their advertising partners
- Logs content from HDMI ports, cable boxes, gaming consoles, and laptops
- Infers "highly personal attributes" about your race, religion, and politics from viewing patterns
This isn't just about tracking what shows you watch. Plug a laptop into your TV for a video call? ACR sees it. Cast family photos from your phone? Catalogued. Pull up your bank account on the big screen? Screenshot taken.
The business model is simple: TVs sell at near-cost because your viewing data makes up the difference. Vizio executives admitted in 2021 that selling viewer data generated more profit than selling televisions.[2]
Nearly three-quarters of U.S. households have a smart TV with ACR. That's about 100 million homes with a device taking screenshots every half second.
The Hisense and TCL Problem
Two of the five manufacturers (Hisense and TCL) are headquartered in China. That's not just a business detail. It's a legal issue.
China's 2017 National Intelligence Law requires all organizations and citizens to "support, assist and cooperate with national intelligence work." The 2021 Data Security Law extends this to data stored anywhere, by any entity under Chinese jurisdiction.[3]
Paxton's lawsuits against Hisense and TCL include additional allegations: that Chinese law could compel these companies to hand over ACR data (your viewing habits, your screen captures) to Chinese intelligence. The court found enough merit in this argument to issue the first-ever TRO against a TV maker, blocking Hisense from collecting data on December 17, 2025.
Whether Beijing actually wants to know what you watched last Tuesday is debatable. But the pipeline exists, and the legal framework to turn it on is already in place.
How to Disable ACR on Any Smart TV
Samsung's settlement only affects Texas. If you live anywhere else, or own a Sony, LG, Hisense, or TCL, your TV is still watching. Here's how to turn it off:[4]
Samsung
Settings → General & Privacy → Privacy
Turn off: "Viewing Information Services" and "Interest-Based Advertising"
Note: Samsung calls this "limiting" data use, not stopping collection entirely.
LG
Settings → General → Additional Settings → Live Plus
Turn it OFF
Also disable "Viewing Information" and "Interest-Based Advertising" in the privacy menu.
Sony
Settings → Device Preferences → Samba Interactive TV
Turn it OFF
Also check for "Smart TV Experience" or "Bravia Sync" data collection options.
Hisense & TCL
Settings → System → Privacy
Look for "Smart TV Experience" or "Viewing Information"
Turn OFF anything related to content recognition or personalized ads.
The Best Option
Disconnect your TV from the internet entirely.
Use a separate streaming device (Roku, Apple TV, Fire Stick) that you control. Keep the TV offline. No connection, no data exfiltration.
Even with these settings disabled, some TVs continue collecting data: they just don't share it with third parties. The "nuclear option" of keeping your TV offline is the only guaranteed fix.
What Happens Next
Samsung settled. Hisense is restrained. Sony, LG, and TCL are still fighting.
Texas is seeking penalties of $10,000 to $250,000 per violation per consumer under the Deceptive Trade Practices Act.[5] With millions of TVs in Texas households and screenshots every 500 milliseconds, the potential exposure is astronomical.
Texas has a track record of winning these fights. The state secured a $1.4 billion settlement from Meta and $1.375 billion from Google over privacy violations in recent years.[6] TV manufacturers are watching those numbers carefully.
The smart bet: more settlements are coming. The legal question isn't whether ACR violates privacy laws: a judge already found "sufficient cause" that it does. The question is how much it costs each manufacturer to make this go away.
Meanwhile, Illinois (where biometric privacy laws already blocked Amazon Ring's facial recognition rollout) could be the next state to target ACR. If the Texas model succeeds, expect copycats.
The Bottom Line
Your smart TV is a surveillance device that happens to display content. Samsung just admitted that by agreeing to get consent before spying on Texans. The other four manufacturers are betting they can fight this in court.
Until your state files its own lawsuit, or these cases reach conclusions that set national precedent, the surveillance continues. Two screenshots per second. Every device plugged into your TV. Every show, every cast photo, every video call.
Disable ACR now. Or better yet, unplug your TV from the internet entirely. The screen doesn't need to be online to display content. It only needs connectivity to watch you back.
References
- Texas Attorney General - Paxton Secures Major Agreement with Samsung (February 26, 2026)
- The Record - Texas Sues 5 Smart TV Makers Over ACR Technology (December 2025)
- Texas Attorney General - Paxton Sues Five Major TV Companies (December 15, 2025)
- Malwarebytes - Samsung TVs Stop Spying on Viewers in Texas (March 2026)
- IAPP - Automated Content Recognition Takes Privacy Enforcement Spotlight (2026)
- SC Media - Samsung Settles Texas Smart TV Data Collection Lawsuit (March 2026)
Published: March 8, 2026