Somewhere in the setup screens you tapped “Agree,” and your TV may now be recording which shows and ads appear on its screen, including from your cable box and game console. The technology is called automatic content recognition, or ACR. Turning it off is possible on most TVs, but the menu names differ by brand, and not every brand documents them well. This guide lists only the paths a vendor page confirmed, and says plainly where we could not confirm one.
Why it is worth the ten minutes
This is not new. In February 2017 the FTC and the State of New Jersey announced that Vizio would pay $2.2 million to settle charges that it collected viewing histories on 11 million smart TVs without users’ consent, according to the FTC’s press release. The case turned on a feature that looked harmless: a “Smart Interactivity” setting that, according to the agencies, also switched on viewing-data collection. The lesson holds today: a setting name does not tell you what data leaves the TV, so read the prompt and look for the word “viewing.”
Brand by brand: what is confirmed
| Brand | What the vendor’s page says | Path confirmed? |
|---|---|---|
| Roku TV | Turning it off means Roku will not use ACR to collect what you watch through the antenna and connected devices. It only affects that Roku TV. | Yes: Settings, Privacy, Smart TV Experience. During setup, uncheck “Enable Smart TV Experience.” |
| LG | LG’s September 12, 2026 statement says ACR is optional and “turned off by default,” that you can turn it off at any time in TV settings, and that you can withdraw from the Viewing Information Agreement. | No exact path for current models on the page we read. |
| Samsung | The Samsung support page we opened (Hong Kong site) describes withdrawing agreement to terms: Home, Menu, Privacy Choices, then Terms & Conditions, Privacy Policy, and View details for an item. It does not mention ACR or viewing information by name and tells readers to check the TV manual. | Privacy Choices path confirmed; the ACR-specific item is not. |
| Google TV | Google’s TV help page covers ad settings, not ACR: Settings, Privacy, Ads, then Reset advertising ID or Delete advertising ID. Google says ads cannot be turned off completely. | Ads path confirmed; no ACR switch documented there. |
| Amazon Fire TV | Excerpts of Amazon’s privacy FAQ describe Device Usage Data and Collect App Usage Data toggles under Settings, Preferences, Privacy Settings. | Not confirmed: Amazon’s page would not load for us. |
| Vizio | Excerpts of Vizio’s viewing-data policy say the setting is in the Settings menu and that turning it off deletes historical viewing logs, while some other activity data is still collected. | Not confirmed: Vizio’s page redirected away when we tried it. |
For Fire TV and Vizio, treat the labels as a search term. Open the menu, look under privacy, preferences or system, and read each toggle before you change it.
Roku, step by step
Roku is the best documented. Go to Settings, then Privacy, then Smart TV Experience, and turn the feature off. Three points from Roku’s policy matter:
- Previously collected data is kept. Roku says disabling the feature does not delete what it gathered while it was on, and that data may still be shared with third parties for the described purposes.
- Streaming is separate. The choice does not cover internet streaming. Roku still collects data on your use of streaming channels, and channel operators collect their own.
- It is per TV. The setting will “only affect this Roku TV.” The policy does not address Roku sticks and boxes, so we cannot tell you whether it applies to them.
Samsung, LG and others: what to look for
If you cannot find your brand’s switch, search the menus for these terms, which come from the vendor and regulator pages above rather than from a single menu tree:
- “Viewing Information” or “Viewing Data” (LG’s agreement name, Vizio’s setting name)
- “Smart TV Experience” (Roku)
- “Privacy Choices” and “Terms & Conditions” (Samsung)
- “Interest-based advertising” and “advertising ID” (Google TV and others)
Samsung’s page also warns of side effects: some features may not work if you decline data access, and its Vision AI Companion requires agreeing to the viewing information terms, so declining disables it. Read each switch before you flip it.
What to do on a new TV
- Do the setup screens slowly. Decline anything labelled viewing information, smart TV experience or interest-based ads unless you want the feature.
- Skip the optional account sign-in until you decide what the TV needs.
- After setup, open the privacy and terms menus again. Some TVs ask for consent again after updates.
- Reset the advertising ID if the TV offers it. On Google TV the steps are Settings, Privacy, Ads, Reset advertising ID.
- Agree on the rules with the household. Our piece on a family tech agreement is a good place to add “ask before accepting a TV or app privacy prompt.”
What turning ACR off does not do
It does not stop streaming apps from tracking what you watch inside them, and it does not remove data already collected, as Roku states. It does not stop your internet provider from seeing which services you connect to. For a TV that has a microphone, voice settings are a separate switch; Samsung’s page lists Bixby voice privacy options on its own. If you want less data leaving the house altogether, the most reliable option is to keep the TV offline and use a separate streaming device whose privacy settings you control. That is a trade-off in convenience. The same question, where does the data actually go, is the subject of our guide to checking where a local AI prompt goes.
Questions people ask
- Will the TV stop working if I decline? The vendor pages we read describe individual features that stop (Samsung’s Vision AI Companion, for example), not basic viewing. Roku says its policy affects only that TV’s data collection.
- Is a streaming stick plugged into the TV covered? The TV’s ACR setting concerns the TV’s own software. A separate streaming device has its own privacy menus, and Roku’s policy says it does not address players.
- Will the setting survive a software update or reset? None of the vendor pages we read says. Recheck the menu after a major update or a factory reset, since the prompts may return.
- Is this illegal? The 2017 Vizio case concerned collecting viewing data without consent. Disclosed, consented collection is a different matter, and we are not offering legal advice either way.
Sources
- Roku: ACR Service Policy (US)
- LG: Statement on understanding privacy on LG smart TVs
- Samsung support: How to adjust privacy settings on your Samsung Smart TV
- Google TV Help: Change ad settings for your Google TV
- FTC: VIZIO to Pay $2.2 Million to FTC, State of New Jersey (February 2017)
Checked October 30, 2026. Menu names vary by TV model and software version; Fire TV and Vizio details could not be verified on the vendors’ own pages.