The spies among us: Don't discuss personal issues in front of your Samsung TV.

[Jag_Warrior]

Does anyone else agree that THIS is an area where governments should step in and regulate these smart devices and the internet-of-things? I read a similar story about two years ago, where a fellow found that his Samsung TV was transmitting personal data and he tried to return it to the store where he bought it. He was refused because the claim was that when he plugged it in, he had agreed (by default) to Samsung's terms of use. Absolutely amazing! George Orwell would not be surprised.



Not in front of the telly: Warning over 'listening' TV

Samsung said personal information could be scooped up by the Smart TV.

Samsung is warning customers to avoid discussing personal information in front of their smart television set.
The warning applies to TV viewers who control their Samsung Smart TV using its voice activation feature.
Such TV sets 'listen' to every conversation held in front of them and may share any details they hear with Samsung or third parties, it said.
Privacy campaigners said the technology smacked of the telescreens, in George Orwell's 1984, which spied on citizens.

Data sharing
The warning came to light via a story in online news magazine the Daily Beast which published an excerpt of a section of Samsung's privacy policy for its net-connected Smart TV sets.


The policy explains that the TV set will be listening to people in the same room to try to spot when commands are issued. It goes on to warn: "If your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party."


Corynne McSherry, an intellectual property lawyer for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) which campaigns on digital rights issues, told the Daily Beast that the third party was probably the company providing speech-to-text conversion for Samsung.

She added: "If I were the customer, I might like to know who that third party was, and I'd definitely like to know whether my words were being transmitted in a secure form."

[gadjo_dilo]

Guess what.... I have a Samsung Smart TV......
However it's painful to see it's smarter than me.

[Starter]

Everyone would do well, assuming this is something that concerns them (IMO, you are a fool if it doesn't) to contact Samsung and any other company which does this and express you intention to never buy any of their products if they don't eliminate these kinds of "features".

[donKey jote]

... Or maybe simply start by turning off voice activation...

[donKey jote]

"OK Google"

[Rollo]

Does anyone else agree that THIS is an area where governments should step in and regulate these smart devices and the internet-of-things? I read a similar story about two years ago, where a fellow found that his Samsung TV was transmitting personal data and he tried to return it to the store where he bought it. He was refused because the claim was that when he plugged it in, he had agreed (by default) to Samsung's terms of use. Absolutely amazing! George Orwell would not be surprised.

What I want to know is if someone like a health insurance company, is looking to buy the information that comes out of devices like this? If they could hours of data to prove that you were watching television, they might at some point use that data to prove that you were negligent in taking care of your health and thus invalidate the terms of your insurance.

Governments probably should step in and regulate these smart devices but that means admitting that a right to privacy might exist. No such right exists in the US Constitution and Article 12 of the UDHR mentions the words "No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy" which is extremely difficult to prove if you've voluntarily bought the device into your home.

Governments basically don't care because political parties have long since been bought off by private firms.

[Rudy Tamasz]

Thanks for warning, Jag. I'm not buying Samsung stuff any time soon.

Speaking of the government regulation, well, men in black will be the first ones in line to request your personal data from private companies. I believe they have every chance to get it without much resistance. Don't rely too much on the government, or just don't trust it.

[Rollo]

Speaking of the government regulation, well, men in black will be the first ones in line to request your personal data from private companies.

On what basis?

Other private companies have a greater commercial reason for requesting data than government does. I've worked in government and where official secrets are involved. Government isn't as sinister as much as it is incompetent and will always be so when its underfunded.

[Rudy Tamasz]

On what basis?

Other private companies have a greater commercial reason for requesting data than government does. I've worked in government and where official secrets are involved. Government isn't as sinister as much as it is incompetent and will always be so when its underfunded.

Based on the Dilbert cartoon. Isn't that authoritative enough?

[schmenke]

I fail to see what all the fuss is about.
Is a "smart" tv not similar to using any other web-accessible device or application that tracks your browsing history?
At least I'm not in the habit of speaking my PIN number in front of the tv .