Your Smart TV spying on you is a very recurring sentiment today. In fact, it is more than a sensation, although it has its nuances. And today it is rare not to see a television with such characteristics. technologies to obtain information about the content we see To provide personalized recommendations and advertising based on our tastes and interests.

This is thanks to a technology known as ACR, which is currently integrated into most Smart TVs. Below these lines we tell you What does it consist of and how can you disable it? on your television.

What is ACR technology?

ACR means Automatic Content Recognition (Automatic Content Recognition). It is a technology that allows the use of smart televisions. Automatically identify content playing on screenWhether it’s a live broadcast, a recorded program, or content from a streaming platform.

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The technology analyzes pieces of displayed content and compares them to a media database. describe exactly what you see. This can include TV shows, movies, commercials, and even games. Once the content is identified, the information can be used for various purposes:

• Content Personalization: Provide recommendations based on what the user has seen before.
• Targeted Advertising: Show ads that are more relevant to the user based on their behavior while using the television.
• data collection: Collect information about users’ consumption habits for market research, create consumer profiles and more.

This technology has raised some privacy concerns because collects data about what people seeoften without users being fully aware of this. That’s why many smart TV manufacturers allow you to disable ACR in the TV’s privacy settings.

How to disable ACR technology on your TV?

While commenting on the post, this Reddit user noticed something odd about one of the menu options on his TV. When he saw the active ACR options, he realized that the television was collecting. Information about everything you see, when you did it and for how long. As if this were not enough, it is also a technology responsible for collecting location data.

Despite this user’s consternation, the truth is that dealing with such technologies is becoming increasingly common. Below these lines we specify How can you disable the option? Depending on the brand of your television:

• for Samsung TVs– Go to privacy options in the settings menu, select Terms and conditions > Privacy policy and make sure the ‘View information services’ box is unchecked.
• for LG TVs: This option is located in the general settings panel and in ‘Additional settings’ we need to disable the ‘Live Plus’ option. You can also limit watching ads from the same menu.

• for Sony TVs: Go to your TV’s settings and disable ‘Samba TV’, Sony’s ACR technology, in the initial configuration menu. You can also turn off ad personalization in Settings > About > Ads. However, you can completely disable Samba Services Manager, which is a background process that starts next to the television. You can do this by going into the application settings and find Samba Service Manager in the list. Here we need to clear the cache, force shutdown and disable the service. Since Sony uses Android TV, you’ll also need to disable Chromecast data collection. This option is found in the connected TV’s settings in the Google Home app on your phone.
• for TCL TVs: Depending on the TCL operating system you will find the option one way or another. If it is Android TV, the option is similar to that of Sony televisions, if it does not have this operating system you will need to go to the privacy settings of your television and disable the options within the Smart TV Experience. TV login information. You can also limit ad customization and disable microphone permissions from the ads menu.

• for Hisense TVs: Very similar to the options available on TCL TVs. To do this we must access the privacy menu in the Smart TV settings and find the ‘Smart TV Experience’ option or something that refers to viewing information services. Tap to disable all options, including limiting personalized ads, from the settings panel.

Pi-Hole and DNS blocking

Normally these options are not enough to completely disable advertising and tracking of our information. So there are users who rely on certain hardware to block all ads and tracking of all their home devices, Using Pi-Hole or similar.

We can also block ads Changing DNS server The one our television uses. We can do this from the network settings of our television. A while ago we told you how to make a Samsung TV.

Processing our data is becoming increasingly valuable, and manufacturers insist on using technologies to collect all this information for the purposes we have already mentioned.

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