Texas Court Grants, Then Vacates Restraining Order Against Samsung's Data Collection
A Texas state court granted, then vacated a temporary restraining order (TRO) against Samsung this week for collecting consumers' TV audio and viewing data without proper consent. Samsung is one of five TV makers that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) sued Dec. 15 for illegal use of automated content recognition (ACR) technology.
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On Monday, Judge Benjamin Smith blocked Samsung from using ACR technology, finding “good cause to believe” the TV company used the technology to capture consumers' audio and visual data. In addition, its process for enrolling consumers into ACR data collection was “false, deceptive, or misleading” because it failed to disclose the amount of data collected or how it's used, Smith ruled.
Among other misleading and deceptive practices cited, the court said Samsung's language describing ACR data collection was confusing, its privacy disclosures weren't easily accessible, and dark patterns were used to pressure users into consenting.
But on Tuesday, Smith vacated his earlier decision. Without giving a reason, he said "the Order should be set aside" and "is of no force or effect whatsoever."
Samsung shared the court document via email with Privacy Daily. The company also noted that its TRO hearing is still scheduled for Friday.
Before the reversal, the AG's office published a release Tuesday celebrating the TRO. “The right to privacy is fundamental, yet for too long smart TV manufacturers like Samsung have been secretly using advanced technology to spy on Texans without their knowledge,” Paxton said. The AG's office didn't respond to a request for comment about the vacated TRO.
Last year, Paxton secured a TRO against Hisense, blocking it from using, selling, sharing or transferring ACR data (see 2512180032). Hisense is headquartered in China, which heightened the AG’s privacy concerns about the technology's use.
His other three suits are against Sony, LG and TCL (see 2512150048). Like Hisense, China-based TCL raises additional data-harvesting concerns. Sony is headquartered in Japan; Samsung and LG are based in South Korea.