{"id":90073,"date":"2025-12-16T16:05:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T16:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/90073\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T16:05:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T16:05:07","slug":"texas-is-suing-all-of-the-big-tv-makers-for-spying-on-what-you-watch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/90073\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas is suing all of the big TV makers for spying on what you watch"},"content":{"rendered":"

Texas is suing five of the biggest TV makers<\/a>, accusing them of \u201csecretly recording what consumers watch in their own homes.\u201d In separate lawsuits filed on Tuesday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton claims the TVs made by Sony<\/a>, Samsung<\/a>, LG<\/a>, Hisense<\/a>, and TCL<\/a> are part of a \u201cmass surveillance system\u201d that uses Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) to collect personal data used for targeted advertising.<\/p>\n

ACR uses visual and audio data to identify what you\u2019re watching on TV, including shows and movies<\/a> on streaming services and cable TV, YouTube videos, Blu-ray discs, and more. Attorney General Paxton alleges that ACR also captures security and doorbell camera streams, media sent using Apple AirPlay or Google Cast, as well as the displays of other devices connected to the TV\u2019s HDMI port, such as laptops and game consoles.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit accuses Samsung, Sony, LG, Hisense, and TCL of \u201cdeceptively\u201d prompting users to activate ACR, while \u201cdisclosures are hidden, vague, and misleading.\u201d Samsung and Hisense, for example, capture screenshots of a TV\u2019s display \u201cevery 500 milliseconds,\u201d Paxton claims. The lawsuit alleges that TV manufacturers siphon viewing data back to each company \u201cwithout the user\u2019s knowledge or consent,\u201d which they can then sell for targeted advertising.<\/p>\n

Along with these allegations, Attorney General Paxton also raises concerns about TCL and Hisense\u2019s ties to China, as they\u2019re both based in the country. The lawsuit claims the TVs made by both companies are \u201cChinese-sponsored surveillance devices, recording the viewing habits of Texans at every turn.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attorney General Paxton accuses the five TV makers of violating the state\u2019s Deceptive Trade Practices Act<\/a>, which is meant to protect consumers from false, deceptive, or misleading practices. Paxton asks the court to impose a civil penalty and to block each company from collecting, sharing, or selling the ACR data they collect about Texas-based consumers. Samsung, Sony, LG, Hisense, and TCL didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis conduct is invasive, deceptive, and unlawful,\u201d Paxton says in a statement. \u201cThe fundamental right to privacy will be protected in Texas because owning a television does not mean surrendering your personal information to Big Tech or foreign adversaries.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Texas is suing five of the biggest TV makers, accusing them of \u201csecretly recording what consumers watch in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[42505,42506,223,8002,24336,24991,20194,302,27,29,28,42507],"class_list":["post-90073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-gadgets","tag-lg","tag-news","tag-policy","tag-privacy","tag-samsung","tag-sony","tag-tech","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-tvs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}