Texas attorney general accuses TV makers of spying on consumers

The Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, filed a lawsuit against five of the world's largest TV manufacturers, accusing them of using smart TVs to collect Texans' personal data without their knowledge. His office announced the legal action in an official statement, and it comes as Paxton is running for a U.S. Senate seat.

According to the state prosecutor's office, the defendant companies are Sony, Samsung, LG, China-based Hisense and TCL Technology Group Corporation. The complaint alleges that these corporations allegedly implemented data-collection practices that violate consumer privacy in Texas.

Technology under the spotlight

The core of the lawsuit centers on the use of Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) technology. According to the attorney general's office, this tool allows identifying what appears on the screen of a smart TV and monitoring the user's viewing activity.

The prosecution describes ACR as an "unseen and uninvited digital invader" and claims that it can capture images of the screen every 500 milliseconds, track content consumption in real time and transmit that information to companies without the user's knowledge.

Commercial use of the data

Paxton contends that the data collected through ACR is not limited to TV operation but is used for commercial purposes. According to the indictment, the defendant companies sell this information to target advertising on various platforms for financial gain.

The prosecution statement also claims that, in the case of the Chinese manufacturers, the Chinese Communist Party has access to the data collected through this technology.