The Verge's TV privacy questionnaire: who answered, and what the answers leave open
The Verge sent 17 yes-or-no questions about TV privacy and data collection to 11 companies: Amazon, Apple, Google, Hisense, LG, Panasonic, Roku, Samsung, Sony, TCL and Vizio. The outlet published its report on the exercise on 11 November 2026.
Hisense ignored The Verge's emails requesting answers entirely. Seven companies supplied representatives who responded: Eric Sveum for Amazon, Emily Ewing for Apple, Alex García-Kummert for Google, Chris De Maria for LG, Sarah Novatt for Roku, Frank Giancamilli for Samsung and Rob Manfredo for TCL.
The questions centre on automatic content recognition (ACR), the technique many TVs use to work out what is on screen by matching it against a reference database. Manufacturers and platform operators use that data to tailor advertising, generate audience metrics and drive content recommendations.
A Northeastern University study found that Vizio continued sending data after users opted out of tracking. Traffic from Samsung and Roku TVs was limited after opt-out but was not stopped completely. Vizio told The Verge that data sent after opt-out was routine operational data used to support the Vizio experience, and that it was not ACR data.
Amazon's answers focused on microphones. The company told The Verge that microphones on Fire TV voice remotes work only when the mic button is physically pressed. For TVs with hands-free Alexa, Amazon said the set detects only the wake word (the trigger phrase that activates the assistant) before connecting to Alexa, and that no audio is stored or sent to the cloud unless that wake word is detected. Amazon also said every Fire TV smart television with microphones has a physical button or switch that disables the microphone.
In my view, the gap between the Vizio traffic findings and the company's explanation is where readers should focus. A vendor can describe ACR and opt-out as separate data pipelines and still transmit telemetry that a researcher can observe after a user has declined tracking. The line between ACR data and operational data is precise, and it will matter to anyone auditing a TV's network behaviour. Amazon's statements are of a different kind. A hardware switch either cuts the microphone or it does not, and an owner can check that claim on a set at home.
The broader context here is that several of the controls being described already ship in consumer hardware, from physical mic switches to opt-out toggles. What buyers still lack is a simple way to confirm that an opt-out means what the menu says. Network-level verification, of the kind the Northeastern researchers carried out, is one route to that answer, and it does not depend on taking any manufacturer's word for it.
