You turn on the television to watch a film. Before you have even opened your streaming app, the home screen offers you an advert, three apps you never installed and a series "recommended for you".
Recommended how? Because your television often knows what you watch.
Those who make their TV "dumb"
In recent days, a small revolt has gathered pace on social media, reported by the site TechCrunch. Developers have published methods that let a coding assistant, such as Claude Code, clean up a television running Android TV or Google TV: removing home-screen adverts, imposed apps and tracking functions, and speeding up the interface.
One of them says the idea came to him one afternoon, irritated by the adverts on his parents' television. Another sums up his goal: a TV that shows only your apps and your HDMI inputs, with no advertising, no tracking and no unrequested updates.
The method relies on a developer-only mode and is meant to be reversible. But it carries risks: one user says he rendered his television unusable, another got stuck partway through. Nor does it work on Samsung and LG televisions, which use other systems. So it is best reserved for those who are comfortable with computers.
The good news is that you can already do a lot without hacking anything.
Many connected televisions use a technology called automatic content recognition, or ACR. At regular intervals, it analyses what is showing on screen, from images or sound, and compares it against a database to identify the programme. It can do this even when you are using a games console or a set-top box plugged in via HDMI. This information is used to serve you targeted adverts, and may be resold to advertisers. It is often switched on by default, at the moment you accept the terms during first installation.
Five settings to take back control
1. Turn off content recognition. Go to your television's privacy settings or terms of use. Depending on the brand, the option goes by different names: on Samsung, it relates to viewing information services; on LG, it is called Live Plus; on Sony, it is tied to Samba Interactive TV. Look for anything that mentions viewing information, content recognition or analysis of what you watch.
2. Refuse personalised adverts. In the same menus, or in the settings of your Google account or the brand's account, turn off advert personalisation. You may see just as many, but they will no longer be based on your habits.
3. Re-read what you agreed to. When the television was first set up, it had you accept a series of terms. Most can be withdrawn afterwards, in the settings.
4. Turn off the microphone. If you do not use voice control, switch it off, and check whether the remote control or the television has a microphone that is always on.
5. Consider the radical option. If you watch everything through a set-top box, a console or a streaming stick, you can simply disconnect your television from the internet. It becomes a screen, nothing more, nothing less. Or refuse, right from setup, all the optional terms.
What the law says
In Europe, data protection rules apply to your television too. Data about what you watch can say a lot about you, and collecting it must be based on free and informed consent, which you can withdraw at any time. We recently pointed out, in relation to smart glasses, that everyday objects often collect far more than you would imagine.
The takeaway
A connected television is rarely sold at the price it really costs. Part of its price is paid by your data and by the adverts it displays.
A few minutes in the settings are enough to greatly reduce what your television knows about you. To make it a little less smart, and a little more yours.