AUSTIN, Texas (KXXV) — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton secured a temporary restraining order against Hisense, a major Chinese smart television company, preventing it from collecting personal data through Automated Content Recognition (ACR) technology without consumer consent.
The first-of-its-kind court order stops Hisense from gathering data that captures every sound and image playing on its TVs every 500 milliseconds. Paxton filed lawsuits against Hisense and four other major technology companies earlier this week.
According to the attorney general's office, Hisense uses ACR technology to collect data without users' knowledge or consent, violating Texans' privacy rights. The company then sells the ACR data and consumer information for profit, with the Chinese Communist Party having access to all collected data.
The temporary restraining order prevents Hisense from collecting, using, selling, sharing, disclosing or transferring ACR data about Texans while the case proceeds through the courts.
"The days of Chinese tech companies spying on Americans' televisions are over," Paxton said. "This TRO is a major victory for privacy rights and the movement to stop Big Tech companies from secretly watching Texans. Let this be a notice to every other company wanting to steal Americans' data illegally that there will be consequence for their unlawful and unethical activity."
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