The short answer
The setting that matters most is Automatic Content Recognition, which samples what is on screen and reports it for ad targeting. On Samsung it is called Viewing Information Services, on LG it is Live Plus, on Roku it sits under Smart TV Experience, and on Sony it is inside the Samba or Google settings. Turning it off costs you nothing except worse ad targeting.
Smart TVs are sold cheaply because the set is only part of the product. The rest of it is data: what you watch, when you watch it, which apps you open, and in many cases what is on screen even when you are using a games console or a Blu-ray player. That last part surprises people. Automatic Content Recognition works by fingerprinting the picture itself, so it does not matter whether the content came from the TV’s own apps.
None of this is hidden exactly, but it is accepted during a setup wizard nobody reads, buried under names like “Viewing Information Services” that do not describe what they do. Here is where each setting lives and what happens when you switch it off.
Samsung
Open Settings, then All Settings
Press the Home button, scroll left to the gear icon, then choose All Settings.
Go to General and Privacy, then Terms and Privacy
Older sets put this under Support, then Terms and Policy. Both lead to the same list of consents.
Turn off Viewing Information Services
This is Samsung’s name for ACR. Switching it off stops the TV fingerprinting what is on screen.
Turn off Interest-Based Advertising
This stops the collected data from being used to target ads on the home screen and inside Samsung TV Plus.
Turn off Voice Recognition Services if you do not use voice
Voice data is processed in the cloud. If you use the remote’s buttons rather than talking to the TV, there is no reason to leave this on.
LG
LG’s equivalent is called Live Plus. Open Settings, then All Settings, then General, then System, then Additional Settings. Turn off Live Plus. In the same area you will find User Agreements, where you can withdraw consent for personalised advertising and voice information. LG also has a Do Not Sell My Personal Information toggle in some regions, which is worth flipping regardless of where you live, because it is often wired to the same backend behaviour.
Sony and other Google TV sets
Google TV sets separate Google’s data collection from the manufacturer’s. Under Settings, then Privacy, you will find Ads, where you can opt out of ads personalisation and reset the advertising ID, and Usage and Diagnostics, which sends telemetry to Google. Separately, many Sony sets ship with Samba Interactive TV, which is the ACR layer. Look under Settings, then Initial Setup or Samba Interactive TV, and disable it. If you cannot find it, it may have been declined during setup already.
Roku and Roku TVs
Go to Settings, then Privacy. Under Advertising, enable Limit Ad Tracking. Under Smart TV Experience, uncheck Use Info from TV Inputs, which is Roku’s ACR. Under Microphone, you can restrict app access. Roku is more aggressive than most about home-screen advertising, and turning these off reduces but does not eliminate it.
Amazon Fire TV
Settings, then Preferences, then Privacy Settings. Turn off Device Usage Data, Collect App Usage Data and Interest-based Ads. Then go to Preferences, then Data Monitoring and switch it off. Fire TV’s home screen will still show sponsored rows, because those are not personalised, they are simply sold.
After changing these settings, restart the TV. Several manufacturers only apply consent changes on the next boot, and people who check straight away conclude nothing happened.
What you actually lose
Very little. Disabling ACR removes “recommended because you watched” style suggestions on the home screen and makes the ads you see less relevant. It does not affect picture quality, app functionality, HDMI inputs, streaming services or voice search performed inside an app like Netflix. The only genuine loss is on Samsung and LG, where some interactive overlay features that show information about the programme you are watching stop working. Most people never used them.
The setting people forget: the network
If you have a TV you only use as a display for a streaming stick or a console, the cleanest privacy fix is not to connect it to Wi-Fi at all. A TV with no network connection cannot report anything. You lose firmware updates and the built-in apps, which you were not using anyway. On sets that nag constantly about being offline, you can also block the TV at the router by assigning it to a guest network with no internet access, or by adding its MAC address to a block list.
Do not install third-party blocklists on your router with the assumption they will fully stop TV telemetry. Several manufacturers hard-code their own DNS servers, which routes around network-level blocking. Turning the settings off in the TV menu is more reliable than trying to filter it at the network.
Microphones and cameras
Very few modern TVs have cameras, but many have far-field microphones for wake words. If yours does, there is usually a physical switch or a menu toggle to disable the always-listening microphone while keeping push-to-talk on the remote. That is the sensible middle ground: nothing is listening in the room, but voice search still works when you press the button.
Does turning off ACR stop the TV showing ads?
No. It stops the ads from being targeted using what you watch. Home-screen advertising is sold regardless and will continue, though it becomes generic.
Will my TV still get software updates if I decline the privacy terms?
Yes. Security and firmware updates are separate from the advertising and viewing-data consents. Declining ACR does not block updates.
Does ACR work when I am playing a games console?
On most sets, yes. It fingerprints the picture on screen rather than the source, so HDMI inputs are included. That is one of the strongest reasons to turn it off.
Is a streaming stick more private than the TV apps?
Not inherently. A Fire TV or Roku stick has its own data collection, which you also need to configure. The advantage is that you can control one small device and leave the TV offline entirely.
Do I have to redo this after a factory reset?
Yes. A factory reset restores the default consents, and the setup wizard will ask again with agreement pre-selected in some regions. Go back through the privacy menu afterwards.
Five minutes, once
Find ACR under whatever name your manufacturer uses, switch it off, disable interest-based advertising, turn off the always-listening microphone if you do not use it, and reboot. If the TV is only ever a screen for something else, leave it off the network entirely and the question disappears. None of this degrades the thing you bought the TV for.
