Your TV is watching you: Here’s how to make it stop

When you sit in front of your smart TV, you’re not the only one watching. Your TV is watching too. It’s watching you.

Just about every smart TV these days collects data on your viewing habits, including what you watch, what time you watch it and for how long. If you use your smart TV to access the internet, it will monitor your online activity as well. If your smart TV has a built-in microphone and camera, it could be eavesdropping on your conversations and capturing video of you.

The company that made your smart TV uses the data it collects to build and maintain a profile of you and show you ads it thinks you’ll like based on that profile. The TV company might sell airtime to advertisers directly. It might also sell your profile to advertisers and data brokers, which then use it to target you with ads themselves. Bingeing “Top Chef”? You’ll probably be seeing more food-related commercials. Love “Growing a Greener World”? Expect more ads for lawn-care products. And so on.

A cheap TV comes with a price

Many of the smart TVs on the market are budget-friendly, often sold for less than they cost to manufacture. That’s because smart TV companies now make most of their money, not from your purchase, but from the targeted ads they can sell for as long as you own the TV.

What’s streaming? You

This smart TV business model represents a broad expansion of corporate surveillance. It also raises many privacy concerns. Based on your viewing habits, a smart TV company can make all kinds of judgments about you, from your income to your ethnicity to your political affiliation—which is somewhat alarming given today’s political environment.

When your TV-viewing profile is sold to advertisers and data brokers, it’s linked to your IP address. This enables corporations to mesh your TV habits with your online activity and watch a live stream of you—no matter what screen you’re on. Data is sent to the manufacturer continually, from every few seconds to every few minutes.

Smart TVs use a number of tools to monitor you and TVs from many manufacturers have these tools switched on by default. It’s up to you to go into settings and switch them off. Doing it may take a bit of time. You may have to go deep into the settings and the steps to turn off the monitoring tools vary depending on the manufacturer. Try Googling the name of your TV along with what you want to do, such as, “Turn off ACR on LG smart TV.”

Here’s a general guide.

Turn off automatic content recognition

ACR is a technology that identifies whatever video or audio is running on your smart TV. It will hear, see and recognize content regardless of where it comes from—a streaming service, a USB, a CD or a game. ACR data is used to target you with ads. It’s also used to profile you as an individual—your politics, ethnicity, sexual orientation, profession, economic status, gender identity, religion and more.

On some TVs, ACR is an opt-in feature. On others, it’s on by default. As noted, the steps to turn off ACR will vary depending on your TV’s manufacturer. Usually, you’ll go to Settings > Privacy. Then, look for Smart TV Experience, Viewing Information Services or words to that effect. When you find ACR, toggle it off. If you see a box labeled Use Info from TV Inputs, uncheck it.

Turn off the internet-based advertising service

This is a system that delivers targeted ads directly to your TV via your internet connection based on the profile that the TV’s manufacturer maintains on you. The system is designed to target ads at cord-cutters who mostly watch streaming services like Netflix and Hulu.

To turn it off, go to Settings, then go to Privacy, Support or Terms and Conditions, depending on your TV brand. Look for Ad Settings and/or Internet-Based Advertising or a similar descriptor. Toggle it off or uncheck the box.

Delete the advertising ID

Every smart TV has an advertising ID. This is a unique identifier that enables ads to be targeted to your TV based on the profile your smart TV company has built on you.

You can reset the ID, which takes your profile back to zero. If you do, the ads you see will not be personalized for a time but they’ll slowly get more so as your profile rebuilds.

You can also delete your advertising ID and opt out of profiling. Go to Settings, then go to Privacy, Device Preferences or a similar descriptor. Go to Ads and select Delete Advertising ID.

Turn off the camera

Some smart TVs come with cameras built-in, for video calling, gesture control and facial recognition. Some TVs will now recommend shows based on the faces of all the household members. Some even monitor your facial expressions while you watch, which is kinda creepy. It’s also conceivable that, if you don’t regularly update your operating system, a hacker could find a security gap and turn your TV into a live webcam.

To turn the camera off, go to Settings, then go to Privacy, Device Preferences or a similar selection. Find the Camera and toggle it off. Or, for a quick solution, stick a piece of black tape over the camera lens.

Switch to CREDO Mobile

We’re the one mobile service that cares about privacy as much as you do. That’s why we support the ACLU, whose Privacy and Technology division defends your right to privacy and protects you against surveillance technologies. And Fight for the Future, which advocates technology as a force for liberation, not oppression.

Join CREDO Mobile and you’ll get all you want from your phone company: the nation’s largest, most reliable network, competitive plans, great deals on new phones and friendly customer service.

And you’ll get much more. You’ll get an easy, effective way to make change in the world.

Switching is easy. You can bring your current phone and your current number. Just go to CREDOMobile.com.