Your TV is watching you: turn it off without hacking.

01/ Links

• PCWorld — Please don't use AI hacks to debloat your TV↗October 22, 2026. Why debloating a TV with an AI agent is risky, and the simpler alternatives.
• Smart Home Perfected — disable ACR on Samsung, LG, Sony↗Detailed menu paths by brand and model year.
• Men's Journal — UC Davis, UCL and UC3M study↗Source of the numbers in the reel: LG every 15 seconds, Samsung every 60, including over HDMI.
• cleanyourtv on GitHub (episode 1)↗The Claude Code route for Android/Google TV — more powerful, with a risk of boot loops.

03/ How to run

1. 01Samsung (2020 and newer): Settings → All Settings → General & Privacy → Terms & Privacy. Uncheck Viewing Information Services and Interest-Based Advertisement. Pre-2020 models: Support → Terms & Policy → SyncPlus and Marketing — turn off.
2. 02LG (webOS 5+, 2020 onward): Settings → All Settings → General → System → Additional Settings → Live Plus — off. Then in User Agreements uncheck Viewing Information and Interest-Based Advertising; on 2022+ sets also Who Where What.
3. 03Sony: Settings → Device Preferences → Samba Interactive TV — off; also turn off Usage & Diagnostics.
4. 04Google TV (Hisense, TCL, Sony): Settings → Privacy → Usage & Diagnostics — off; under Ads, opt out of personalization and reset the advertising ID.
5. 05Clean Android TV home screen: install a launcher from Google Play (e.g. Projectivy Launcher or Kyu) and set it as Home. Google TV doesn't officially allow changing the default launcher — you'd have to remap the Home button.
6. 06⚠️ Menu names vary by model, year and firmware language. Firmware updates can switch these settings back on: recheck every 3–6 months. This doesn't remove ads inside YouTube and other apps.