Does opting out of smart TV tracking work? Research finds “suspicious” traffic.

Researchers found that some Samsung, Vizio and Roku smart TVs continued sending network traffic to automatic content recognition (ACR) endpoints after users disabled tracking. The findings raise questions about whether opt-out settings fully stop data collection, though the researchers could not confirm that the encrypted traffic contained viewing data.

The study examined eight operating systems on 12 televisions from 10 manufacturers and ran 5,943 controlled experiments. ACR can capture screenshots or audio clips for audience measurement and targeted advertising. The behaviour varied: Roku’s tested TVs showed it only when using The Roku Channel, where the practice was disclosed, while Samsung Tizen and Vizio OS showed ACR-like traffic in additional scenarios. The researchers cautioned that their findings may not apply to other ACR providers or systems.