Smart TV Terms Tracker

Smart-TV legal text, stored and compared.

Privacy policies, terms of use, ACR agreements, and partner clauses usually live on a setup screen, not in a PDF you can keep. This archive stores the wording, diffs it when the hash changes, and tags recurring clauses: guest consent, viewing fingerprinting, onward sharing, arbitration, silent amendments, voice pipelines, and LAN discovery.

Seeded after 2026 reporting on LG webOS (LAN scans, ACR, standby audio claims). The same treatment applies to Sony, Samsung, Hisense, and TCL. Commentary with source URLs, not legal advice. Status badges mark archived fetches versus placeholders versus samples.

Brands

Gaps count documents that still include a placeholder or sample version. Open a brand for the full list.

Hisense

Google TV / Android TV / Roku (varies)

Documents: 3

Last crawled: Sep 13, 2026

Gaps / samples: 0

US Android/Google TV models publish a public EULA and Data Protection Policy plus an optional Enhanced Viewing Service that uses ACR and names Nexxen (formerly Tremor) as an advertising partner.

Last text change: Jul 29, 2025

LG

webOS

Documents: 8

Last crawled: Sep 13, 2026

Gaps / samples: 1

webOS smart TVs with optional Live Plus ACR, voice recognition, and interest-based advertising agreements. 2026 reporting focused on LAN discovery, standby audio claims, and layered on-TV consents.

Last text change: Sep 12, 2026

Samsung

Tizen / Smart Hub

Documents: 4

Last crawled: Sep 13, 2026

Gaps / samples: 2

Tizen Smart TVs with optional Viewing Information Services (ACR), voice recognition, and interest-based ads. On-TV Smart Hub notices are often hosted separately from the global privacy policy.

Last text change: Sep 13, 2026

Sony

Google TV / Android TV

Documents: 6

Last crawled: Sep 13, 2026

Gaps / samples: 0

BRAVIA sets in the US typically run Google TV. Viewing-data advertising is commonly handled through optional Samba Interactive TV (Free Stream Media Corp.), separate from Sony’s website privacy policy and from the My BRAVIA app notice.

Last text change: Sep 13, 2026

TCL

Google TV / Roku (varies)

Documents: 4

Last crawled: Sep 13, 2026

Gaps / samples: 1

North American privacy notice covers TCL smart TVs, including voice-assistant handoff to Google/Amazon and advertising identifiers. On-TV user-experience and ACR consents are often not mirrored as standalone public PDFs.

Last text change: Sep 13, 2026

Implication notes

All notes

Recurring clause patterns, with deep links into highlighted excerpts.

  1. 01ACR and viewing fingerprinting

    Automatic Content Recognition fingerprints what is on the screen (HDMI, antenna, apps the vendor supports) for measurement, recommendations, and, with extra consent, ads.

    ACR

  2. 02Forced arbitration and class waivers

    Several brands put dispute resolution in the same click-through that unlocks Netflix. LG’s August 2026 User Agreements prompt was, by LG’s own support article, mainly an arbitration update. The last full published on-TV Terms of Use (January 2024) already required US binding arbitration and a class waiver.

    Arbitration

  3. 03Data sold or shared onward

    Viewing data is rarely used only inside the TV. Agreements describe sharing with named ACR and ad vendors, affiliate ad companies, and unnamed third parties who may commercialize the feed.

    Sold / shared

  4. 04Guest and household consent burden

    Several TV agreements treat the living-room set as a household device and ask one person to obtain consent from everyone else whose viewing or voice might be collected, guests included, in practice if not in wording.

    Guest consent

  5. 05LAN scanning and device-discovery claims

    Smart TVs need to find soundbars and consoles. 2026 packet captures of LG sets showed broader LAN and nearby-Wi-Fi collection than many owners expected. LG’s statement splits “device discovery,” “nearby Wi-Fi for ACR location,” and ACR itself.

    LAN discovery

  6. 06Standby, microphones, and voice pipelines

    Voice features use a different data path from ACR. Agreements cover wake-word monitoring, remote-button sessions, speech-to-text vendors, and (in 2026 reporting) what happens in standby or offline.

    Voice / standby

  7. 07Unilateral amendment and continued-use consent

    Many policies say the company can change the rules, and that keeping the TV or site on is enough to accept the new version. LG’s 2026 ToS update is the sharper case: a blocking prompt when the vendor calls the change material.

    Unilateral change