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Smart TVs take snapshots of what you watch multiple times per second

Smart TVs from Samsung and LG monitor what you are watching even when you are using the screens to display a feed from a connected laptop or video game console

By Jeremy Hsu

24 September 2024

Smart TVs watch everything on the screen

Shutterstock

Popular smart TV models can take multiple snapshots of what you are watching every second or upload audio snippets of viewed content – possibly even when they are being used as external displays for your laptop or video game console.

Smart TV manufacturers use these frequent screenshots or audio clips in their automatic content recognition systems, which track viewing habits in order to target people with specific advertising. But researchers showed this tracking by some of the world’s most popular smart TV brands – Samsung TVs can take screenshots every 500 milliseconds and…

Article amended on 30 September 2024

We updated the story with comment from an LG representative

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