Samsung and Vizio TVs still send ACR-like traffic after opt-out
Original title: Samsung and Vizio Smart TVs Continue Sending Viewing Data Even After Users Opt Out
A study of 12 TVs found Samsung and Vizio opt-outs did not stop ACR-like traffic, while encryption blocked confirmation of the payload.
Researchers testing automatic content recognition on US smart TVs found Samsung Tizen and Vizio SmartCast sets kept sending traffic consistent with ACR after the feature was disabled. The study covered 12 televisions from 10 manufacturers and 5,943 automated experiments. Encrypted connections prevented confirmation that the traffic contained viewing data or that manufacturers retained it. LG webOS, Sony Google TV, VIDAA, and Fire TV opt-outs looked effective in the tests; Roku’s did not cover its own streaming service.
Unconfirmed: Researchers could not confirm encrypted transmissions contained viewing data or that manufacturers stored them.
- Samsung Tizen produced ACR-like traffic in all 30 opted-out built-in streaming tests.
- Vizio’s Amazon Kinesis ACR endpoint received traffic in every opted-out run.
- VIDAA sent audio fingerprints and device IDs over unencrypted MQTT.
- An unauthenticated server exposed more than 57 million recognition results in three hours.
- Findings apply only to the tested devices and firmware.
Impact: Possible continued collection of viewing data after opt-out
| Product | Affected |
|---|---|
| Samsung Tizen smart TVs | — |
| Vizio SmartCast | — |
- Countries
- United States
From the original article
2 min read at gbhackers.com
Samsung and Vizio smart TVs continued sending traffic consistent with automatic content recognition (ACR) even after researchers disabled the feature. This raises concerns about how reliable privacy controls are at preventing surveillance of viewing. However, encrypted connections made it impossible for researchers to confirm whether those transmissions contained viewing data or whether manufacturers retained them.
By Divya · gbhackers.com
A short excerpt; the article and its images belong to the publisher. Summary, key facts and assessment above are AI-written from the article and can be wrong.