Texas is taking action against Chinese technology companies.

This week, the office of the contentious Texas attorney general Ken Paxton launched lawsuits against television manufacturers Sony, LG, Samsung, TCL, and Hisense for purportedly utilizing Automated Content Recognition (ACR) technology to secretly capture screenshots of users’ viewing activities for data gathering.

In Paxton’s press announcement, it is stated that ACR captures a screenshot from televisions every 500 milliseconds and transmits that information back to the manufacturer without the user’s knowledge or consent.

It remains unclear whether these companies are culpable of Paxton’s claims. ACR is a legitimate technology mainly employed for targeted advertising or personalized content suggestions. Most smart TVs allow for its deactivation, but users need to be aware that it is activated in the first place.

Paxton’s worries extend beyond targeted advertising. Three of the five firms named in the lawsuits are not of Chinese origin, yet Paxton emphasized the potential danger of sharing viewing data with Chinese entities.

The Attorney General referred to an “ongoing threat” posed by the Chinese Communist Party to the safety of Texans—without detailing the nature of the threat or explaining why data collection by Chinese companies is considered more perilous than that by Japanese or Korean firms like Sony and Samsung.

“Companies, especially those connected to the Chinese Communist Party, should not unlawfully record Americans’ devices within their own homes,” Paxton remarked. “This conduct is invasive, misleading, and illegal. The essential right to privacy will be defended in Texas because owning a television does not equate to relinquishing personal information to Big Tech or foreign adversaries.”

Despite Paxton’s alarmist stance, it is wise to verify whether ACR is active on your television and contemplate taking steps if it is.