Attorney General Ken Paxton Secures Major Win by Stopping Samsung from Using its Smart TVs to Illegally Spy on Texans

AUSTIN, TX -- Attorney General Ken Paxton secured a major victory against Samsung, halting the company’s use of technology that allowed it to spy on Texans in their own homes.

Samsung is one of the five major TV companies that was found to have been collecting personal user data through Automated Content Recognition (“ACR”) technology. This technology captured screenshots of its TVs every 500 milliseconds without the knowledge and consent of consumers, flagrantly violating Texas law.

The Temporary Restraining Order (“TRO”) secured by Attorney General Paxton prevents Samsung, and all other persons in active concert or participation with the company, from continuing to use, sell, transfer, collect, or share ACR data relating to Texas consumers. The District Court found that there was good cause to believe that Samsung’s actions violated, or were likely to violate, the Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

“The days of Big Tech digitally invading Americans' homes and spying on them are over,” said Attorney General Ken Paxton. “The right to privacy is fundamental, yet for too long smart TV manufacturers like Samsung were secretly using advanced technology to spy on Texans without their knowledge. Now, after filing our lawsuit just a few weeks ago, we’ve secured a court order stopping this unlawful monitoring. This is a major win for Texans and for digital privacy.”

This win follows an order Attorney General Paxton secured against Hisense, which is connected to the Chinese Communist Party, to stop the company from using ACR technology to spy on Texans. The Office of the Attorney General has sued five major television manufacturers for deploying this technology to collect sensitive consumer data without proper consent.

To read the TRO, click here.