Opting out of TV tracking works on most sets, but not all, researchers find
Samsung, Roku and Vizio sets kept some tracking traffic after users switched ACR off, and one TV brand's messaging exposed viewing data from other owners.
Researchers at Northeastern University tested 12 TVs from 10 manufacturers to see whether opting out of automatic content recognition (ACR) actually stops TV tracking. Opting out worked for most sets, including LG, Amazon Fire TV, a Sony Google TV model and Vidaa OS devices, but Samsung's Tizen sets still sent some ACR-linked traffic on antenna, HDMI and first-party streaming inputs. Roku OS sets kept ACR active for the Roku Channel app, and the Walmart-owned Vizio TV showed no change in tracking traffic after opting out. The team also found that an unencrypted Vidaa OS messaging broker exposed ACR results, including a permanent client ID and an audio fingerprint, from other users' TVs. Because most traffic was encrypted, the researchers said they could not confirm the content of the traffic that persisted after opt-out.
Why it matters
For owners of TVs from these brands, the opt-out setting cannot be taken as a guarantee that viewing data stops leaving the set. Users who rely on it to limit tracking would need to check their specific model, and the exposed Vidaa messages show that data from one household can be readable from others on the same system. Because the researchers could not read most of the traffic that continued after opt-out, the exact nature of what is still being sent remains unconfirmed.
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