Your Smart TV Is Watching You: How to Turn Off ACR in 2026

Most televisions sold in the last several years ship with Automatic Content Recognition enabled by default. ACR samples what is on your screen — pixels, audio, or both — and matches it against a reference database to work out what you are watching.

Not which app. What. Including, on many sets, content arriving over HDMI from a console, a streaming stick, or a laptop.

This stopped being a niche privacy concern in December 2025, when the Texas Attorney General sued five major manufacturers over it. Samsung subsequently disabled ACR for Texas viewers. Everyone else still has to find the setting themselves, and it is buried several menus deep on every platform.

Here are the exact paths.

The honest framing: Tuneline is a media player for content you provide. It has no advertising, and it does not do anything resembling ACR.

What ACR Actually Collects

Worth being precise, because the vague version is easy to dismiss.

A peer-reviewed study presented at the 2024 ACM Internet Measurement Conference measured ACR behaviour directly on Samsung and LG sets. The pattern:

• The set samples the screen — periodic frame fingerprints or audio fingerprints.
• Those go to a matching service that identifies the content.
• The result is tied to your household identifier and used to target advertising.
• On many sets this applies to HDMI inputs too, so a device you deliberately chose for privacy is fingerprinted by the panel it's plugged into.

The last point is the one people find most surprising. Being careful about which app you use does nothing if the display itself is fingerprinting the output.

Samsung

Samsung's ACR is called Viewing Information Services.

Settings → Support → Terms & Privacy → Privacy Choices

On newer models: Settings → All Settings → General & Privacy → Terms & Privacy → Privacy Choices

Turn Viewing Information Services off. While you're in there, also decline Interest-Based Advertising.

LG

LG's is called Live Plus.

Settings (gear) → All Settings → General → System → Additional Settings → Live Plus → Off

Also in that area: turn off Advertisement / limit ad tracking. LG has moved this between menus across webOS versions, so if the path doesn't match, search the settings for "Live Plus" directly.

Roku

Settings → Privacy → Smart TV experience → untick Use info from TV inputs.

Then Settings → Privacy → Advertising → enable Limit ad tracking.

The first controls ACR on HDMI inputs specifically. The second limits what's done with the resulting profile.

Google TV and Android TV (Sony, TCL, Hisense, Philips)

Settings → Privacy → Ads → turn on Opt out of Ads Personalization, and Reset advertising ID.

Some manufacturers layer their own ACR on top of Google's. Check the manufacturer's own settings section as well — TCL and Hisense in particular ship additional viewing-data options outside the Google menus.

Fire TV

Settings → Preferences → Privacy Settings

• Device Usage Data → Off
• Collect App Usage Data → Off
• Interest-based Ads → Off

What Turning It Off Does and Doesn't Do

What you get back: the set stops fingerprinting what's on screen and stops building a viewing profile from it.

What doesn't change:

• Individual apps still track you inside themselves. Turning off panel-level ACR does nothing about what a streaming app records about your viewing within that app.
• You'll still see ads, they'll just be less precisely targeted.
• Some recommendation features get worse. That's the trade, and it's usually a small one.

What may quietly come back: a major firmware update can re-enable these or introduce a new toggle that defaults on. Worth re-checking once a year, and after any big update.

The Stronger Option: Don't Use the Smart Part

If this bothers you enough, there is a more complete answer than toggle-hunting: stop using the television's built-in platform entirely.

Use the panel as a display, and put a device you actually control in front of it. That doesn't defeat ACR on sets that fingerprint HDMI — a real limitation, and worth knowing — but it does mean your apps, accounts and viewing habits live somewhere you chose.

Practical versions:

• A small computer or media box running software you picked.
• A player that doesn't have an advertising business attached to it.
• Network-level blocking (a DNS sinkhole such as Pi-hole) to cut off the telemetry endpoints regardless of what the set's menus claim. This is the only approach that survives a firmware update re-enabling things.

The network-level route is the most robust. It's also the only one that keeps working when a manufacturer decides your previous choice no longer applies.

Why Any of This Matters

Televisions are sold at thin margins and monetised afterwards. That's the business model, and ACR is one of its main instruments. Roku is in roughly 90 million homes and still loses money annually, which explains a great deal about the direction of its interface. (What that looks like on the home screen.)

You are not obliged to participate. The settings exist — they are simply placed where few people will look.

FAQ

What is ACR on a smart TV?

Automatic Content Recognition. The set samples your screen or audio, matches it against a database to identify what you're watching, and uses that for ad targeting. On many sets it covers HDMI inputs too.

Does ACR track HDMI inputs?

On many models, yes. That means a console or streaming stick is fingerprinted by the panel regardless of what the device itself sends.

What is Samsung Viewing Information Services?

Samsung's name for ACR. Settings → Support → Terms & Privacy → Privacy Choices.

What is LG Live Plus?

LG's ACR layer. Settings → All Settings → General → System → Additional Settings → Live Plus.

Will turning off ACR break my TV?

No. You lose some content recommendations. Playback, apps and inputs are unaffected.

Can a firmware update turn it back on?

Yes. Re-check after major updates. Network-level blocking is the only approach that survives them.

Bottom Line

• ACR is on by default on most sets and often covers HDMI inputs, not just apps.
• Samsung calls it Viewing Information Services; LG calls it Live Plus; Roku splits it across Smart TV experience and Advertising.
• Turning it off doesn't stop individual apps from tracking you inside themselves.
• Firmware updates can re-enable it — re-check annually.
• The most durable fix is network-level blocking, which survives menu changes.
• Texas sued five brands over this in December 2025; the settings exist, they're just buried.

Want a player with no advertising business attached? Download Tuneline — free, ad-free, and it plays what you bring it.

— Sam Ellis