Your Samsung TV might still be sending out tracking data without your consent

Samsung, like many other TV manufacturers, has an Automated Content Recognition (ACR) feature on its TVs. It basically works by taking screenshots of whatever's on the screen to serve better ads.

ACR was enabled by default but the company recently agreed to not use the feature without users' consent. However, it appears that the TVs may still be sending out tracking data even when users have not consented.

Samsung has previously landed in hot water over its use of ACR. It was sued by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, and an agreement was later signed with Samsung Electronics which mandated that no ACR data will be collected without users being fully informed about it and consenting to it.

New research has found that disabling this feature might not prevent the TV from sending out tracking data. Tests ran by the researchers found that Samsung, which makes up for about 34% of US smart TVs, kept sending traffic consistent with ACR even when the feature was disabled.

The data was found to be transmitted in all 30 of Samsung's own streaming service tests, 41 of 60 antenna tests, 18 of 30 HDMI tests, and six of 30 Tubi tests.

Perhaps the only relief is that the traffic that was sent by Samsung TVs, even with ACR disabled, was encrypted. This meant the researchers couldn't confirm exactly what data the TVs were sending, only that the sending of this data might have potential privacy implications.