Skip to main content

Got a Vizio smart TV? Here's how to stop it from spying on you

how to stop vizio smart tvs sharing viewing habits m series
Digital Trends/Jeff Van Campe
Like many smart-TV makers, Vizio has been on the hot seat lately thanks to news that its smart TVs were sharing data with third-party vendors — particularly an instance in which Vizio’s penchant for sharing what viewers watch with advertisers made the TVs vulnerable to a hack. Vizio claims it has since fixed those vulnerabilities, but if you’d like to make sure your TV doesn’t open its yapper anymore, here’s the quickest way to tell your smart TV to keep things to itself.

Using what Vizio calls “Smart Interactivity,” Vizio’s smart TVs collect info about what you watch, which then tells advertisers to, say, trigger a pop-up which coincides with what you’re watching. Now, we all love pop-ups, but just in case you’d like to take a break from them, here’s how to make sure that Smart Interactivity is deactivated.

If you have an older Vizio Smart TV with the VIA TV interface, press the Menu button on your remote control, and scroll down to get into the Settings menu of your TV. You’ll then want to scroll down until you find the Smart Interactivity tab, and highlight it. After that, it’s as simple as tapping on the right arrow of your remote and changing the setting from On to Off. And that’s it.

If, however, you have the newer VIA Plus TV interface,  you will need to dig just a bit deeper. To do so, either press the Menu button on your remote, or go into the HDTV Settings app. Then select System>Reset & Admin. Again, you’ll want to highlight Smart Interactivity and change the settings to Off.

Once done, as far as Vizio has disclosed, your TV will no longer share your viewing habits with Joe Q. Advertiser, and you can rest easy knowing that, whatever you watch, it’ll be between you, the wall, and your smart TV.

Editors' Recommendations

Ryan Waniata
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Ryan Waniata is a multi-year veteran of the digital media industry, a lover of all things tech, audio, and TV, and a…
Here’s how you can get The Last of Us for free from AMD
the-best-stealth-games-of-all-time

AMD has just announced a particularly well-timed bundle. If you're a fan of The Last of Us, be it the game or the show, you might find this deal worth picking up.

Starting today, you'll be able to score a free copy of the upcoming The Last of Us Part I for PC if you buy an AMD GPU. The chipmaker is also throwing in a discount on one of its best graphics cards.

Read more
Here’s how you could protect your RTX 4090 from melting
The RTX 4090 graphics card on a table alongside a set of cables held in hand.

Reports about melting connectors and adapters on the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 are still popping up every so often, and we still haven't had an official statement from Nvidia on the matter. However, tech experts from around the globe are trying to find the cause of the problem.

This time around, a power supply expert from Corsair released a lengthy explanation of what might be happening. According to JonnyGuru, the issue is not caused by a faulty connector but rather by user error. The fix is rather simple.

Read more
Vizio has new smart TVs and soundbars for 2023, but the best may be yet to come
Vizio 2023 M-series TV hanging on a wall.

Vizio has announced its 2023 collection of new M-, V-, and D-Series smart TVs and M-Series soundbars, all with trickle-down features from the company's flagship products -- but totally absent were any new P-Series products.

Judging from what the company provided, it's continuing its aggressive pricing strategy while adding some small but valuable improvements, like better Wi-Fi, Bluetooth integration, and expanded variable refresh rate (VRR) support. That's great to see, and anyone considering a TV or soundbar purchase in the next few months now has more options, but it left us wondering, when will Vizio share its enhancements for its top-of-the-line P-Series Quantum and Quantum X TVs?

Read more