If you hesitated to get a smart TV or if you’re worried about your TV watching you, I have two bad news. Firstly, you won’t find a decent TV that doesn’t work smart TV platform. Second, this platform can almost certainly spy on you in some way. The good news is that you can actually make your smart TV quieter, or at least mute the parts that are spying on you. It’s probably a lot simpler than some of the methods you’ve heard of.
I’ve heard a lot lately about people using AI to de-smart their smart TVsremoving tracking, ads and, ironically, AI assistants. Projects like the one coded by AI Clean your TV And Projectivity Launcher selectively shrink or revise your Google TV-based TV, and DumbTV does the same for Fire TVs. You follow a few esoteric but fairly straightforward steps to load them onto your TV, and they overwrite the interface to remove things that stare at you, show ads, or just slow everything down.
I can respect these projects, and if you want to try them, go for it. But you don’t need to go that far to get a simpler experience that doesn’t follow you. Here are some simpler steps you can follow that don’t require any knowledge of ADB sideloading or using terminal commands from your computer.
Disable ACR
Most spying features on TVs like ACR can be disabled if you know where to look. (Credit: Will Greenwald)
It’s the biggest. Your TV may be spying on you by default, but you should be able to stop it too. Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) is a “feature” on smart TVs that monitors and identifies what you are watching and collects this data for targeted advertising or for sale to third parties. Fortunately, you can opt out.
On Amazon’s Fire TV platform, go to Settings > Preferences > Privacy settings > Automatic content recognition. Turn off this option, as well as device usage data, app collection, and live data. For more details and instructions for other smart TV platforms, check out my guide on how to disable ACR.
Turn off the microphone to disable AI
If you have a high-end TV, it probably has a far-field microphone array so you can use its built-in AI assistant. It may be constantly listening for a wake word, whether it’s “Alexa,” “Hey Google,” “Hi TV” or something else. If you don’t want this to happen, you can simply turn off the microphone.
Your TV’s settings menu should include an option to choose whether the voice assistant is always listening. Look for anything that says “Hands-Free” or “Voice Control” or has the name of your TV’s assistant. Turn it off.
The TV may also have a physical microphone mute switch that turns it off completely. Look under the center of the bottom edge for a switch (not a button; it’s probably your TV’s power/input button) and move it. The TV should display a message that the microphone is muted and the LEDs that light up when listening may change to a different color. Sometimes these LEDs stay lit annoyingly when the microphone is turned off. If this is the case, I recommend covering them with a strip of electrical tape.
There’s no mechanical mute switch on this LG LED TV, but the circled parts are where the microphones might be. (Credit: Will Greenwald)
In fact, if you really want to be thorough, you can just cover the microphones themselves with electrical tape. Take a close look at the area I mentioned and identify any small slots or pinholes, such as those shown on the LG TV above. Cover them with a few layers of tape, taking care not to cover the button or the clear plastic that sticks out from the edge of the TV (that’s the remote’s infrared receiver). Your TV can’t listen to you if it literally can’t hear you.
You don’t need to use your TV’s streaming features at all. In fact, your TV doesn’t need to be connected to your network to work. Turn off Wi-Fi and your TV has no way to listen. With Wi-Fi turned off, you can still watch anything connected to your TV via HDMI, such as a separate media streamer.
If you try to turn off Wi-Fi, your TV might complain. Don’t listen to him. (Credit: Will Greenwald)
For a simplified, content-focused experience, I recommend a Roku device, like the Streaming Stick 4K ($79.99). They’re not constantly listening to you (unless you have a Roku Ultra, in which case you can easily turn off the microphone with a switch on the remote). In fact, it doesn’t have an AI assistant at all, just a fairly simple voice search feature that lets you control your TV and a handful of Roku smart home devices. Roku OS is pretty basic, with large tiles that take you directly to the app of your choice rather than endless rows of content recommendations. It shows ads and recommendations, but they are minimal compared to other platforms.
You can also use any other media streamer of your choice. Although they use the same interfaces as some TVs, media streamers generally don’t have ACR like TVs do. Apple TV, Fire TV, and Google TV streamers have Siri, Alexa, and Gemini built-in, respectively, so you may want to disable their microphones if they have them.
Recommended by our editors
Most Blu-ray and Ultra HD Blu-ray players also have media streaming services with much simpler interfaces than media streamers, so you can go that route. Owning physical media also has its own benefits, like not needing to be online to watch it and never having to worry about it being removed from a service.
Whichever streamer you choose, all you have to do is set your TV to the correct input and maybe adjust some image settings for optimal viewing (generally speaking, switching to Movie or Cinema mode is your best bet).
Reset your TV to factory settings
Sometimes the best option is a good old clean slate. (Credit: Will Greenwald)
If you’re worried that your TV continues to sneakily keep Wi-Fi, ACR, and microphones on to spy on you even after you turn them off, you can go one step further: perform a factory reset.
Fully resetting your TV will erase any personal or network information. It won’t know how to access your Wi-Fi network or who you are. You’ll need to reconfigure it, but this is where you can perform one last cool trick.
When it asks for Wi-Fi, select “Ignore”. Don’t connect it from the start. The setup assistant may complain and tell you about all the cool features you’re missing, but it should still let you, reluctantly, start using the TV without any smart features. And, just like with Wi-Fi turned off, you can still access any device connected to the TV via HDMI, so you can watch whatever media you want on your terms without your TV’s watchful gaze hovering over you.
About our expert
Will Greenwald
Senior Editor, Consumer Electronics
Experience
I’m PCMag’s home theater and AR/VR expert, and your go-to source for news and recommendations for game consoles and accessories, smart displays, smart glasses, smart speakers, soundbars, TVs, and VR headsets. I am an ISF Certified TV Calibrator and THX Certified Home Theater Technician, have been a judge at the CES Innovation Awards, and although Bandai has not officially certified me, I am also proficient in building plastic Gundam models up to the MG class. I also enjoy writing genre fiction and my urban fantasy novel, Alex Norton, Paranormal Technical Support, is currently available on Amazon.
Read the full biography
Gn tech
