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arXiv:2409.06203cs.CR

Watching TV with the Second-Party: A First Look at Automatic Content Recognition Tracking in Smart TVs

Gianluca Anselmi, Yash Vekaria, Alexander D'Souza, Patricia Callejo, Anna Maria Mandalari, Zubair Shafiq

Abstract

Smart TVs implement a unique tracking approach called Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) to profile viewing activity of their users. ACR is a Shazam-like technology that works by periodically capturing the content displayed on a TV's screen and matching it against a content library to detect what content is being displayed at any given point in time. While prior research has investigated third-party tracking in the smart TV ecosystem, it has not looked into second-party ACR tracking that is directly conducted by the smart TV platform. In this work, we conduct a black-box audit of ACR network traffic between ACR clients on the smart TV and ACR servers. We use our auditing approach to systematically investigate whether (1) ACR tracking is agnostic to how a user watches TV (e.g., linear vs. streaming vs. HDMI), (2) privacy controls offered by smart TVs have an impact on ACR tracking, and (3) there are any differences in ACR tracking between the UK and the US. We perform a series of experiments on two major smart TV platforms: Samsung and LG. Our results show that ACR works even when the smart TV is used as a "dumb" external display, opting-out stops network traffic to ACR servers, and there are differences in how ACR works across the UK and the US.

arXiv comments
In Proceedings of the 24th ACM Internet Measurement Conference (IMC) 2024
Journal reference
DOI
Subjects
cs.CRCryptography and Security cs.CYComputers and Society cs.NINetworking and Internet Architecture

On Hacker News

Linked by 10 identifiable commenters in 10 comments across 9 threads, from Sep 2024 to Sep 2026. Found in 7 HN submissions from Sep 2024 to Apr 2026. Open submission discussions.

Comments linking this paper, per year.

Discussed in comments9 threads

  1. LG denies TV spying claims, says tracking and snooping concerns 'not true' 1 comment

    • LG's statement: > ACR uses audio fingerprinting technology using the TV’s internal audio processor (not a speaker) to identify content and does not collect screenshots, screen recordings, video recordings, voice recordings, or other audio recordings from the TV. So they are…

      rpdillonView on HNParent context

  2. 216M Spy TVs – The LG Smart TV Problem [video] 1 comment

    • https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/blog/2017/02/what-vizi... "Starting in 2014, Vizio made TVs that automatically tracked what consumers were watching and transmitted that data back to its servers. Vizio even retrofitted older models by installing its tracking software…

      wongarsuView on HNParent context

  3. Smart TV tracking raises privacy concerns (2024) 2 comments

    • https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.06203 the study Instructions given from the twitter thread but are probably slop: Samsung: Menu → Settings → All Settings → General & Privacy → Terms & Privacy → Turn off "Viewing Information Services" LG: Settings → General → System → Additional…

      its-summertimeView on HNParent context

    • (2024) sources instead of twitter threads: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2024/nov/smart-tv-tracking-raises... https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.06203

      ChrisArchitectView on HNParent context

  4. Texas is suing all of the big TV makers for spying on what you watch 1 comment
  5. Sick of smart TVs? Here are your best options 1 comment

    • I am not a HIFI/TV aficionado, but the ACR [1] thing was new to me. I hope it is not yet important for me as I never allowed a TV access to my LAN/WLAN. But with smart devices using accessible open WLANs to transmit who knows. [1] https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.06203 /…

      sllabresView on HNParent context

  6. I thought I bought a camera, but no DJI sold me a license to use it [video] 1 comment

    • TVs can be aggressivetring to connect to any Wifi network. Apparently some now also come with SIM cards. My xiaomi TV is making thousands of request per day to their domains. I block them all using adguard/adblock, but imagine the amount of information they can get from a…

      RenaudView on HNParent context

  7. Unless my phone can be a PC, I don't want to keep paying for extra performance 1 comment

    • TL;DR: I'm of the opinion that the answer is probably "not yet", "it's in the works", or "it's already here, but not yet widely known". In short, I couldn't find strong conclusive evidence for "yes" or "no". The Wikipedia article on ACR [0] seems to be quoting CIO-Wiki [1]…

      rolandogView on HNParent context

  8. Smart TVs take snapshots of what you watch multiple times per second 1 comment
  9. Smart TVs take snapshots of what you watch multiple times per second 1 comment

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