How to stop tracking on a TCL TV

TL;DR

• Difficulty: 2/5
• Time estimate: about 5 to 7 minutes, covering both finding your system (below) and working through the linked guide for it

TCL is a TV brand, not a TV operating system. A TCL set runs Roku TV, Google TV, Fire TV, or Google TV's predecessor Android TV (on older sets, roughly pre-2021, which were not upgraded to Google TV), depending on the model and the region it was sold in. The tracking controls live in that operating system, not in a TCL menu. So this guide has one job: help you find out which system your TCL runs, then send you to the right guide. There are no verified TCL-specific tracking steps, and any guide that gives you a TCL menu path for turning off content recognition is guessing.

Step-by-step

1. Turn the TV on and look at the home screen.

* A home screen built around a grid of streaming channels and a simple left-hand menu is usually Roku TV.

* A home screen with a Google-style layout and a "For You" tab at the top of the home screen, plus Google account sign-in, is usually Google TV.

* An older Google-style home screen without the "For You" tab is usually Android TV.

* A home screen with Amazon branding and Prime Video up front is usually Fire TV.

1. Confirm it instead of guessing. Open Settings and go to the About screen for your system. It names the operating system or shows the software it runs.

* Roku TV: Settings, then System, then About.

* Google TV: Settings, then System, then About.

* Android TV: Settings, then Device Preferences, then About.

* Fire TV: Settings, then Device & Software, then About.

1. Follow the guide for that system:

* Roku TV: Roku TV tracking guide

* Google TV: Google TV tracking guide

* Android TV: Google TV tracking guide, which covers Android TV as well as Google TV.

* Fire TV: Fire TV tracking guide

1. Work through that guide fully. What it covers depends on the system:

* Roku TV: the content recognition controls (Smart TV Experience, including Automatic Content Recognition and Viewing Information Disclosure), plus the advertising controls (turning off Personalize ads and resetting your advertising identifier).

* Google TV and Android TV: the diagnostics sharing switch and the advertising ID controls. There is no content recognition toggle at the Google layer itself.

* Fire TV: the content recognition toggle and Interest-Based Ads. The Fire TV guide has no advertising ID reset step, because Fire TV does not offer one in the same way.

One closing note for Google TV and Android TV sets: that is the whole job. There is no separate TCL brand-layer step waiting after the Google TV guide, so once you have worked through it, you are done.

Traps to expect

• Searching for a "TCL privacy menu." The tracking switches are in the operating system's settings. Looking for a TCL-branded privacy page wastes time.
• Assuming every TCL works the same way. Two TCL TVs of different sizes or from different years can run different operating systems. Check the set in front of you, not the one in another room.
• Stopping at the TV's setup screens. Being careful during first setup helps, but the operating system settings are where tracking is actually turned off.

What you lose

Nothing TCL-specific. What you lose depends on the operating system your set runs, and each linked guide covers that in its own "What you lose" section. In general it is ad personalization and some viewing-based recommendations.

After / re-check

• After a major software update, open the operating system's privacy settings again and confirm the toggles are still off.
• If you factory reset the TV, the tracking settings reset too. Run the linked guide again.

Why this matters for TCL owners

On December 15, 2025, the Texas Attorney General sued TCL over its TVs' automatic content recognition, the technology that identifies what is on your screen. As of the date below, that case is still pending. The lawsuit does not change your settings either way; turning tracking off is still something you do yourself, in the menus above.

Last verified: October 26, 2026

Sources:

• Texas Attorney General consumer alert, December 19, 2025: Paxton warns Texans about smart TVs and names TCL among the companies sued that week