Samsung, LG, Sony, TCL, and Hisense Hit With Lawsuits Over Secret TV Data Collection

Samsung is apparently being sued in the US, again. The Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a case against Samsung and four other TV brands. The claims in this case include TV makers being able to collect consumers’ personal data through smart TVs.

This isn’t just Samsung being sued; it’s also Hisense, TCL, Sony, and LG, the biggest TV makers in the US. That’s four of the top five biggest TV brands in the US – somehow Vizio didn’t get caught up in this case.

Apparently, these companies have been unlawfully collecting personal data through a technology called Automated Content Recognition (ACR). The allegations include the fact that these TVs capture screenshots of what’s on the screen every 500 milliseconds to monitor what TV viewers are watching in real time and then transmit that information to the company’s servers or partners without the consent of the user.

Each company has its own lawsuit, and in the one against Samsung, it claims that “Most consumers do not know, nor have any reason to suspect, that Samsung Smart TVs are capturing in real-time the audio and visuals displayed on the screen and using the information to profile them to advertisers.”

Texas AG is also calling out Hisense and TCL for “Chinese ties”

In the lawsuit, Texas Attorney General Paxton also calls out the “Chinese ties” that Hisense and TCL have. Yes, both of these companies are based in China – this is not new and has been common knowledge for decades.

AG Paxton says in the press release that “these Chinese ties pose serious concerns about consumer data harvesting and are exacerbated by China’s National Security Law, which gives its government the capability to get its hands on US consumer data.”

You can read up on the individual lawsuits against Hisense, LG, TCL, Sony, and Samsung.

We’ve reached out to each TV maker for a statement on this lawsuit and will update this article once we receive them.

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