The Texas AG’s smart TV lawsuits are a hot mess

Texas Attorney General Tom Paxton sued five smart TV manufacturers this week, alleging in separate lawsuits that Sony, Samsung, LG, Hisense and TCL all were “spying on Texans by secretly recording what consumers watch in their own homes.” At the heart of the lawsuit is the use of automatic content recognition (ACR), which Paxton’s office describes in a press release as “an uninvited, invisible digital invader.”

“This technology puts users’ privacy and sensitive information, such as passwords, bank information, and other personal information at risk,” the press release states. 

It also singles out TCL and Hisense for their Chinese ownership, and quotes Paxton saying that “companies, especially those connected to the Chinese Communist Party, have no business illegally recording Americans’ devices inside their own homes.” The lawsuit against Hisense further alleges that "every image and sound on [...] Hisense Smart TV is collected, stored, and will be shared with the [Chinese Communist Party] upon request."

The problem: That’s not at all how ACR works. Just ask Ken Paxton.