Vol. 2 [Texas News] ⚖️Samsung Reaches Privacy Settlement with Texas over Smart TV Data Collection

• Samsung Electronics America reached a settlement with the Texas Attorney General over its smart TV data practices (Daily Hankook; KVUE).
• Going forward, Samsung is prohibited from gathering or handling viewer recognition data from Texas residents unless they have first given affirmative, informed approval (Daily Hankook).
• As part of the resolution, Samsung's devices will be updated to surface privacy disclosures and opt-in screens that are visible and easy for consumers to understand (Daily Hankook).
• In return, the lawsuit against Samsung has been dropped (Daily Hankook).
  
• The dispute focused on Automatic Content Recognition (ACR), a feature capable of identifying what viewers watch on their TVs (Daily Hankook; KVUE).
• Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's original lawsuit — which also named LG, Sony, Hisense, and TCL as defendants — alleged that these companies had been harvesting personal viewing information through embedded recognition technology and monetizing it via ad-targeting pipelines.(Daily Hankook; KVUE).
  
• Paxton described the deal as a meaningful step toward reforming smart TV data practices and praised Samsung for implementing safeguards (Daily Hankook; KVUE).
• He stated that legal action against other manufacturers accused of similar conduct will continue (Daily Hankook; KVUE).
• Samsung welcomed the outcome, framing it as consistent with its existing commitment to user control, and pushed back on characterizations of its devices as surveillance tools — noting that viewers have always been able to modify their own privacy configurations (KVUE).

(Sources: Daily Hankook; KVUE)