Chinese-Made TVs May Be Monitoring You; Class Action Lawsuit in U.S. Exposes Privacy Risks

According to the Washington-based news site The Daily Caller, a class action lawsuit filed in California alleges that the Chinese Communist Party may be monitoring millions of Americans through their own television sets.

The lawsuit, filed on the 12th by the law firm Peiffer Wolf Carr Kane Conway & Wise in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, targets Hisense USA, the U.S. operation of Chinese appliance manufacturer Hisense Group.

The complaint states that Hisense smart TVs, which are "sitting in the living rooms of millions of American homes," contain built-in automatic content recognition (ACR) technology. This technology is capable of "capturing all audio and video displayed on the screen every 500 milliseconds."

The lawsuit alleges that these devices transmit the relevant data to "Hisense's Chinese parent company and its affiliates, and under Chinese law, these companies are required to hand over this data to the Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party when necessary."

According to a report by the U.S. news site The Center Square on the 17th, the plaintiffs argue that Hisense violates their privacy rights by tracking and sharing their viewing history and behavior, and they are asking the court to issue an injunction to stop such practices. They are also seeking substantial damages, which may include unspecified monetary compensation and punitive damages.

Brandon Wise, an attorney at the firm, stated in a release to the Daily Caller News Foundation: "The most surprising thing is the scale of these alleged actions; this is not just a case about targeted advertising."

He pointed out that Hisense smart TVs act like "home surveillance devices," using ACR technology to capture what users are watching and linking that data to persistent household and device identifiers for distribution.

Wise further stated: "Even more concerning is the allegation in the complaint that Hisense is ultimately linked to Chinese state-owned enterprises, and that sensitive information of these American consumers could be transferred to or accessed by entities under Chinese legal jurisdiction."

While not all Hisense products are manufactured in China, the Hisense Group is a state-owned enterprise of the Chinese government. Hisense did not respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.