The Texas attorney general has reached a settlement with the U.S. unit of Samsung Electronics over the collection of "smart TV viewing data." In line with the agreement, Samsung Electronics will strengthen notices about how it collects and uses automatic content recognition (ACR) data.
On the 27th, the Texas attorney general's office posted on its website that Attorney General Ken Paxton recently reached a settlement with Samsung Electronics over smart TV data collection practices, concluding the matter. Paxton had previously filed a lawsuit against Samsung Electronics over the TV industry's data collection practices.
Under the settlement, Samsung Electronics will provide Texas consumers with clearer and more detailed explanations of whether ACR data is collected and how it is used through a software update. The lawsuit was dropped as Samsung Electronics agreed to promptly implement related safeguards.
The Texas attorney general is currently pursuing lawsuits against Sony, LG Electronics, Hisense and TCL over smart TV data collection. Paxton said, "This settlement is an important step toward improving data collection practices in the smart TV industry," adding, "We highly value Samsung for proactively moving forward with these measures." He added, "Some smart TV companies are acting like digital intruders by continuing illegal data collection targeting Texas residents."