Smart TVs track viewers even after ACR opt-out, study finds

A Northeastern University study, Watching the Watchers, found that smart TVs on Tizen, Roku OS, webOS, SmartCast, Google TV and Fire TV keep sending ACR data to providers after users disable tracking. Only webOS, Google TV on Sony, VIDAA OS and Fire TV OS actually stopped. Antenna broadcasts were tracked on nearly every system, and Vizio's SmartCast sent ACR traffic even while idle.

• ACR opt-out actually worked on only 4 of the tested OSes
• Antenna broadcasts were tracked on nearly every system
• Vizio's SmartCast sent ACR traffic even when idle
• YouTube and Netflix were not tracked on any system