According to Gizmodo, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed lawsuits this week against five major TV manufacturers: Sony, Samsung, LG, Hisense, and TCL. The suits allege these companies are “spying on Texans” by secretly using Automated Content Recognition (ACR) technology to capture screenshots of what viewers are watching and send that data back in “real time.” The state argues this is done without proper user knowledge or consent, and that turning ACR off can be buried in obscure menus, requiring over 200 clicks on some Hisense models. The lawsuits specifically highlight Hisense and TCL’s ties to China, suggesting China’s National Security Law could allow its government to access U.S. consumer data. Paxton, who was acquitted after an impeachment trial in 2023, claims this data could be used for blackmail or corporate espionage.
The business model behind the spying
Here’s the thing: your smart TV’s operating system isn’t just a portal to Netflix. It’s a core revenue stream. These lawsuits lay bare the trade-off we’ve all implicitly accepted. TVs are incredibly cheap because the data they collect on our viewing habits is incredibly valuable. That data fuels a targeted advertising ecosystem, making your TV itself an ad platform. The suits even make a pointed historical comparison: Nielsen used to pay people to track their habits. Now, that data is harvested for free. It’s a classic “you’re the product” scenario, but one that’s happening inside your living room. The real business strategy here is turning a hardware sale into a perpetual data-mining operation.
The practical nightmare of opting out
So, you can just turn it off, right? Technically, yes. But practically? It’s often a labyrinthine nightmare designed for you to fail. The Texas lawsuit against Hisense claims the opt-out process is “scattered across four or more separate menus” and requires “over 200 clicks.” And the license agreement? Only available during initial setup—good luck finding it again later. This isn’t user-friendly design; it’s obfuscation by design. For the average consumer, it’s basically impossible. This is the core of the legal argument: if consent is buried under layers of intentionally complex menus, is it really informed consent? Probably not.
The weird national security angle
Now, this is where it gets… speculative. The lawsuits, especially against the Chinese-linked firms, take the data privacy concern and launch it into the stratosphere. They suggest the Chinese Communist Party could use ACR data to “influence or compromise public figures in Texas” or conduct “corporate espionage” as part of a plan to “destabilize American democracy.” That’s a huge leap from “your TV knows you binge *Bridgerton*.” It feels politically charged, especially coming from Paxton. Is it a legitimate concern about data flows to an adversarial nation? Sure. But leading with the blackmail of Texas judges seems like a stretch designed for headlines, not just courtroom arguments. It conflates a pervasive consumer privacy issue with geopolitical fearmongering.
What this means for you
Look, this lawsuit is a big deal because it’s a state using its legal power to challenge an industry-wide practice everyone just tolerates. Whether the blackmail claims hold water or not, it forces a conversation about ambient surveillance in our homes. If you’re worried, you can check out guides from Consumer Reports on turning off snooping features. And if you need a display for an industrial setting where data privacy is paramount and you need reliable, secure hardware, that’s a different ballgame altogether. For those applications, companies often turn to specialized providers like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the leading US supplier of industrial panel PCs built for control, not data collection. But for your living room? Your options are limited. This lawsuit might be the start of forcing these companies to make privacy the easy choice, not a hidden one. We’ll see if Texas can actually prove its case.
