We buy new TVs to enjoy the latest tech and visuals and don’t appreciate invasive spyware features that gather our data without our knowledge. Unfortunately, TV brands see things in a different light and add features, like Automated Content Recognition (ACR), which are often turned on my default and compromise your privacy. This feature is now found on most new models, and today I’ll show you how to disable it on Hisense TVs.
Hisense differs from other TV brands by offering multiple OS options to choose from. Most of its TVs sold globally run on its proprietary Vidaa OS, which is now being rebranded as Home OS. In the US it sells TVs with other popular platforms. Today’s guide will be on how to disable ACR on a Hisense TV running the Vidaa OS. You can also check out our guides to disable ACR on other Hisense platforms, like Google TV, Roku TV, and Amazon Fire TV.
What is ACR, and why is it an issue?
An invasion of privacy
ACR is a TV function that takes screenshots of whatever content you’re watching every few milliseconds. It also gathers other data like your IP address and ad completion data. The data is then converted to a digital fingerprint and uploaded to the brand’s servers. They then use the data to analyze your viewing habits and share it with third parties to increase their ad revenue.
ACR is a TV function that takes screenshots of whatever content you’re watching every few milliseconds.
According to the Hisense user agreement, ACR may obtain information about your smart TV, including,” device information, such as your device model, operating system version, IP address, SmartTV Identifier, device configurations, and settings and other device identifiers.”
It also collects “your smart TV viewing history, including information about the networks, channels, and programs viewed on your smart TV and the amount of time spent viewing them, to produce aggregate, de-identified analytics (user profiles, statistics, metrics, abstractions, and other analyses) that cannot be used to identify you (“Analytics”).
Some of the official reasons Hisense gives for why it gathers your data are to “provide you with device-specific viewing recommendations, provide you with relevant advertising on other devices that share the IP address of your smart TV that is personalized based on your viewing history, and operate, evaluate and improve our business (including developing new products, enhancing, and improving our products and services.”
As you can see, the scope of the gathered personal information is extremely broad.
As you can see, the scope of the gathered personal information is extremely broad and includes movies, sports, gaming, or anything else you’re using your TV for. The fact that the RAW information is converted to digital fingerprints provides no comfort to users who feel the vast data gathering is an invasion of their privacy.
The good news is that you can disable ACR on your Hisense TV with just a few easy steps.
How do you turn off ACR on a Hisense TV?
Just a few easy steps
Every TV brand uses a different name for ACR. On Hisense Vidaa TVs it’s called Enhanced Viewing Service. Here’s how to disable it.
1. Open Settings on your home screen.
2. Open Advanced Settings.
3. Open Enhanced Viewing Settings. The Enhanced Viewing Service menu will open.
4. Navigate to Enable Automatic Content Recognition and move the slider to the left.
5. A window will pop up displaying the Hisense Enhanced Viewing Service privacy notice. Click on No, thank you to disable it.
6. Another pop-up window will open to confirm that you want to cancel the Enhanced Viewing Experience. Click on Yes, Decline to disable ACR.
- Brand
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Hisense
- Display Size
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55 inches
- Operating System
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Vidaa
- Display Type
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QLED
- Display Resolution
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4K
- Refresh rate
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60Hz
The Hisense QD8SV is a QLED 4K UHD smart TV that runs on the brand’s Vidaa OS.
You probably don’t need these
You might as well change some of the other privacy-related settings on your Hisense TV when you disable ACR. Luckily, most of them are located in the same menu. It’s better to use the TV’s manual image and sound settings than to enable the Automatic Picture and Audio Quality setting. You’re also better off without personalized ads which require you to share your personal information. It’s the same with Content Recommendation which uses harvested viewing data to suggest movies and shows to watch.
1. Open Settings on your home screen.
2. Open Advanced Settings.
3. Open Enhanced Viewing Settings. The Enhanced Viewing Service menu will open.
4. Then use the sliders to disable Enable Personalized Ads, Enable Content Recommendation, and Enable Automatic Picture and Audio Quality.
