How to turn off tracking on a Roku TV

TL;DR

• Difficulty: 1/5
• Time estimate: about 5 minutes

Roku TVs watch what you watch using a feature called automatic content recognition, or ACR. It identifies what is on your screen, including shows from apps, cable, and devices plugged into the TV, and reports that viewing information back to Roku. Turning it off takes two settings screens: Smart TV Experience for ACR itself, and Advertising for the ad settings.

This guide is for Roku TVs only. Roku streaming sticks and boxes do not have ACR, so there is nothing to turn off on those devices. If your TV was sold by TCL or Hisense but runs Roku software, this guide applies; see also tracking-guide-tcl.md and tracking-guide-hisense.md.

Step-by-step

Smart TV Experience (the ACR controls):

1. Press the Home button on your Roku remote.
2. Go to Settings, then Privacy, then Smart TV Experience.
3. Uncheck the ACR control. Depending on your model and software version, it is named either Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) or Use info from TV inputs. Both names are in use on current sets; they are the same control, and either one is the box to uncheck.
4. Uncheck the disclosure control on the same screen. In Settings it is named Content Viewing Disclosure; on the first-run setup screen the same choice appears as Viewing Information Disclosure. Uncheck whichever name your set shows.
5. The remaining item on that screen, More Ways to Watch, is not a separate tracking switch. It is a feature that ACR feeds, offering ways to keep watching content it recognizes on your inputs. Turning ACR off in step 3 removes the recognition behind it.

Advertising (the ad controls):

1. Go back to Settings, then Privacy, then Advertising.
2. Uncheck Personalize ads to stop Roku personalizing ads using your viewing and usage information.
3. Select Reset advertising identifier. This clears the prior usage history tied to your TV's advertising ID and starts a new one. It does not stop future ad data collection on its own; the Personalize ads setting in step 7 is the control for that.

No account sign-in or restart is required for any of these steps.

Traps to expect

• The names vary by model and software version, and not on a clean before-and-after split. Current sets use both ACR names above, and the disclosure control carries one name in Settings and another on the setup screen. If your screen does not match the wording here exactly, look for the privacy screens under Settings and turn off anything tied to content recognition, TV inputs, or viewing disclosure.
• Turning ACR off does not stop in-app tracking. Roku's own documentation is clear on this limit: channels and apps on the TV can still collect their own viewing and usage data under their own privacy settings. This guide stops the TV-level recognition, not what each app does.
• Turning ACR off does not erase what was already collected. Roku states that if you enable ACR and later disable it, the data collected or used while it was enabled is retained by Roku. These steps stop future collection from your TV inputs; they do not claw back the history already sent.

What you lose

Features that rely on viewing information may stop working. More Ways to Watch depends on ACR recognizing what is on your inputs, and input recommendations are powered by the same viewing data. Turning off Personalize ads means the ads you see will be generic rather than matched to your viewing. Playing shows and movies works exactly as before.

After / re-check

• After major software updates, revisit Settings, then Privacy, then Smart TV Experience and confirm the ACR control and the disclosure control are still unchecked, under whichever names your set shows. Then check Settings, then Privacy, then Advertising and confirm Personalize ads is still unchecked.
• Handle app-level tracking inside each channel's own settings or account pages, since the TV-level switches do not cover it.

Last verified: October 26, 2026

Sources:

• Roku support: Smart TV Experience and More Ways to Watch
• Consumer Reports: How to turn off smart TV snooping features