How to stop your TV spying on you

Your data is a valuable commodity and tech brands will do their best to harvest whatever information they can about you to sell to advertisers. 

TVs are effectively making a profile of you, including what channels and shows you like to watch, as well as your voice and text searches. 

Near enough every TV is smart and must be connected to the internet to access streaming apps, and the terms and conditions you accept when setting up the TV typically gives brands carte blanche over the data they collect and profit from.

Not every aspect of data collection can be turned off, but many can and we're going to tell you how.

How to buy the best TV - learn more about brands, tech and see our top recommendations.

Should I be concerned about the data TVs are collecting?

When it comes to your data, TV brands are the seller and advertisers are the customer. When you're buying your fruit and veg, you look for the ripest, tastiest looking items: in data terms that translates to the most well-rounded, complete profiles. Essentially, the more complete the profile of your behaviour, likes and dislikes, the more attractive that data will be to an advertiser who wants to target you with relevant ads and recommendations you'll actually click on.

So, how do TVs create this profile?

• Automatic content recognition (ACR) - your TV recognises what's on the screen, whether that's a Blu-ray playing from a connected player, a BBC drama from iPlayer, a video game on your PS5, or regular broadcast TV. It doesn't matter where the signal is coming from because the TV is taking snapshots of the content to build your profile. It's listening to the audio in the same way.
• Voice searches - many TVs have a microphone in the remote, which is activated with a button, while others have always-on embedded microphones (in the remote or TV) which respond to wake words in the same way as an Amazon Echo. The requests you make with your voice can be innocuous, such as turn the volume up (not overly exciting to an advertiser) but if you're asking to go to specific channels or searching for content then these recordings can be used to bulk out your data profile.
• Usage behaviour - this is less appealing to advertisers, but it's still a form of data collection. TV brands want to know how you interact with your TV, particularly what features you use, how long you spend browsing menus and what settings you access most. This helps brands optimise their operating system. For example, if a brand notices that no one is using the PVR function of their TV then they might remove it from next year's model. Or, if they notice a high percentage of users struggle to find the audio settings in the menu then they might consider changing the menu pathing in their next update.

Clearly, two of these data harvests are more concerning than the other, but a quick trip to the menus can still the scythe.

How to turn off data collection on an LG TV

ACR - Press the Settings button on your remote. On the left you'll see a column of icons, select the Settings menu followed by the General. In this menu, choose System then Additional Settings. Turn off the Live Plus option from this menu.

Ad-tracking - Find the Additional Settings menu again then select Advertisement. In this menu, turn off Content Recommendation.

Voice recognition - Go to the General menu again then select AI Service. You'll find Voice Recognition Settings, turn these off.

How to turn off data collection on a Samsung TV

ACR - Press the Home button on your remote and you'll see a column of options on the left of your screen, choose Privacy Choices. Next, select Terms & Conditions, Privacy Policy. There's a checkbox for Viewing Information Services, make sure this in unchecked. Make sure you hit OK at the bottom of the screen to save your choice.

Ad-tracking - Navigate to Terms & Conditions, Privacy Policy, again. Turn off Internet-based Advertising.

Voice recognition - Navigate to Terms & Conditions, Privacy Policy, again. Turn off Voice Recognition Services.

How to turn off data collection on a Sony TV

ACR -Press the Home button on your remote then choose the Settings menu. Next, select Initial Setup and scroll down the list until you see Samba Interactive TV. Select it then disable the feature.

Ad-tracking - Go back to the Settings menu. Scroll down until you can select About then click Ads and turn off Ads Personalisation.

Voice recognition - Go the Settings menu again and select Device Preferences. Click Google and set "OK Google" detection to disable.

Some Sony models also have a physical microphone switch on the TV you can turn off.

How to turn off data collection on a Hisense TV

ACR -Press the Home button on the remote and select Settings from the menu. Select System and click Privacy. You'll find Smart TV Experience, Viewing Information Services – turn this off.

Ad-tracking - Go back to the Privacy menu and you'll find Ad Tracking (sometimes called Internet-Based Ads) – turn this off.

Voice recognition - Hisense TVs with built-in microphones have a switch under the Hisense logo, which can be turned off to disable the mic.

How to turn off data collection on a TCL TV

ACR - Press the Home button on the remote and select Settings from the menu. Scroll down to find Privacy and click Smart TV Experience. Turn off the option to Use Info from TV Inputs.

Ad-tracking - Go back to the Privacy menu and select Limit Ad Tracking. Click Advertising and uncheck the box for Personalised Ads.

Voice recognition - Select the Privacy Menu again and click Microphone. Restrict Channel Microphone Access and Channel Permissions.

How to turn off data collection on a Panasonic TV

Panasonic TVs have used a range of operating systems, including My Home Screen, Google's Android TV platform and Fire TV from Amazon. The following instructions are for Amazon TV, which is the most common.

ACR - Press the Home button on your remote and head to Settings. Click Preferences followed by Privacy Settings. Turn off Automatic Content Recognition.

Ad-tracking - Go back to the Privacy Settings and turn off Internet-Based Ads. You might as well turn off Collect App and Over-the-Air Usage while you're here.

Voice recognition - Some high-end Panasonic TVs have built-in microphones. There's a switch to turn them off at the bottom of the TV.

How to turn off data collection on a Sky TV

Sky TVs work a little differently and to update your tracking preferences you need to go to your Sky account and then head to the Data & Personalisation tab. Here, you can stop Sky sharing your data for targeted advertising.

Sky Glass TVs have a built-in microphone and there's a switch on the TV to turn it off.

Be careful when you set the TV up

Most of these options are presented to you when you first set the TV up. Most brands cheekily highlight the 'accept all' option, which creates the impression that's the only option.

That's usually not the case though because you can accept, or decline, the different tracking and advertising options individually rather than accepting them all.

You can adjust these settings again in the TV menus, but as you can see from our instructions, they aren't always easy to find, so don't accept all in the first instance.

The connection between cheap TVs and your data

Over the past few years we've seen TVs launching at suprisingly low prices. This trend continued into 2026, despite the Ram crisis causing most consumer tech to go up in price.

It's likely that your data is keeping costs down. People keep their TVs for close to a decade before upgrading, so brands want to keep making money right across the TV's lifetime and they do it, in part, by selling your data to advertisers.

Using our data to pay for something is nothing new. If you're using any free software on your computer or phone then it's probably collecting data to make a profit.

You've paid for your TV though and whether you buy a £300 or £3,000 one from any of the brands we've mentioned here, it will be collecting the same amount of data.

Find out which TV brands stay fault-free for longest in our annual survey.