Your Samsung *Smart* TV is eavesdropping on your private conversations

[dixiegrrrrl]

The camera in your TV is watching you, too.

Many Samsung "SmartTVs" come equipped with voice recognition, which allows you to bark commands at your TV. Since the television is always listening for your voice, Samsung has warned its SmartTV customers that every word is being captured and sent over the Internet.

"Please be aware that if your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party through your use of Voice Recognition," Samsung posted in its SmartTV privacy policy.

Samsung says it needs to send your voice commands to a third-party, because that company converts your speech to text. But Samsung also collects your voice commands to perform research and determine whether it needs to make improvements to the feature.

"Samsung does not retain voice data or sell it to third parties," the company said in a statement. "If a consumer consents and uses the voice recognition feature ... the voice data is sent to a server, which searches for the requested content then returns the desired content to the TV."

http://money.cnn.com/2015/02/09/technology/security/samsung-smart-tv-privacy/index.html

couple of problems here...

Nothing about security of what they send to a 3rd party, so they are sending your conversations into teh web ether .

Same with the camera...what are they recording, where does it go?
Hacker's paradise, it would seem.

[hollysmom]

1. LGs too

this is old news.

[BillZBubb]

2. That is really disgusting.

No doubt, if it hasn't happened already, the national security state will demand and get access to streams from whatever television they want. They'll have audio and video bugging inside every home in America with a state of the art television.

They'll claim you have no right to privacy on this since you are "putting" your information on the internet.

[alcibiades_mystery]

3. So I shouldn't yell all that information about my pin number and how I hate my boss

in front of the teevee?

10-4!

[dixiegrrrrl]

17. or use illicit drugs ........or the word bomb.....

or weird sex

[alcibiades_mystery]

24. Aw, the Internet already knows about the weird sex

[inanna]

4. I will not have one of these in my home.

And I do wonder how much longer before all tech is designed this way?

Because I'd just as soon go without a television over putting up with these kinds of egregious violations.

[arikara]

5. Me too

I hate this technology. Same with those smart chips in every appliance.

[inanna]

10. I watch very little television as it is.

I really can take it or leave it.

This is not technology that is improving our lives in the least.

[dixiegrrrrl]

39. Saw this in a Tweet:

In case you are wondering what "smart" - as in "smart city" or "smart home" - means:

Surveillance
Marketed
As
Revolutionary
Technology

[cantbeserious]

30. TV Free - For 16 Years Now - Better Life All Around

eom

[Mr Dixon]

6. SMH

I guessing all smart TV’s are listing maybe even watching all your activities.

[Brother Buzz]

7. I got burned, my Samsung Smart TV doesn't have a camera or a microphone

A year or so ago, my wife read an article about this and started looking for the camera and mic on our TV. My son had to explain to her the TV had neither, then started laughing when he pointed out the laptop computer she used to read about the spying had both.

[inanna]

11. Laptop cams and mics can be disabled though.

Is the same true of these televisions?

I'm asking because I really don't know. I don't own one and never will.

[Brother Buzz]

13. Duck tape, electrical tape, and post-it-notes have worked fine for years

[shanti]

21. i believe so

you have to opt in or out (not sure which) when you first get it home.

[dixiegrrrrl]

23. They say it is optional and you ca opt out...

but I am distrustful of anything that has them in the first place.

[hobbit709]

8. Ice pick into the camera lens and microphone fixes problem.

[AgadorSparticus]

16. Snort! Lol

[nichomachus]

9. Well, at least someone is listening to me n/t

[jmowreader]

12. Sounds like the telescreens in 1984

[KamaAina]

14. "You can turn it off!" "Yes, we have that privilege."

[IDemo]

36. Or the "Soviet TV watches you" of Yakov Smirnoff n/t

[jeff47]

15. This is true of every single device that does not require you to press a button to start listening.

On an iPhone, you have to do something to start Siri (hold down the home button). It isn't listening to you otherwise.

On an XBox one, you can just say "Hey, XBox". It is always listening.
On your Garmin GPS, you can just start talking. It is always listening.
On this Samsung TV, you can just start talking. It is always listening.
On an Amazon Alexa, you can just start talking. It is always listening.
And so on.

Now, Samsung is the only one admitting to sending everything over the Internet...but you really don't know if those other devices are or are using local voice recognition.

[Odin2005]

18. Sure, right when I get a Samsung smart TV for Christmas...

[Separation]

19. I have a Samsung tv

Ive waited years and years to buy a nice tv. Prior to this Ive always settled for a small out of date tv. The tv I bought is an Ultra HD 70inch curved tv by Samsung. I am in complete love with this tv. I cant believe what I have missed for all those years with my older TV's. Video Games- Completely blow my mind Sports- Holy Cow! its amazing!

There are other "smart functions" that the tv has as well. Netflix, Internet, and my favorite, a pointer remote controller, and many many more apps. There is a voice controlled section that I have never setup, because, well.... to be honest I dont know why. So I dont know if that means that they are still recording my conversations. If so, mostly all they will here is me cussing about the VA and how inept, evil, they are.

[Iggo]

20. Ew, nobody wants to see that.

Just, ew.

[Initech]

22. Easy way to stop this if you are paranoid about this sort of thing;

DON'T ENABLE WIFI ON YOUR TV. Period. These types of nonsense articles would go away if people would just do this one simple thing!

[MineralMan]

25. Just wrap your TV completely

In aluminum foil and enjoy freedom. Or hook it up to a rabbit ear antenna and view your local broadcast channels. Still, to be sure, throw your wireless router in the trash and remove all batteries from telephones, except when needed to make brief calls.

Welcome to 1963, ladies and gents.

[LiberalElite]

26. How about leaving it unplugged till you want to use it? nt

[dixiegrrrrl]

27. How about getting one that does not spy on you?

When did they start sneaking microphones and cameras into tv sets in the first place?
And how come no one seems to have noticed...or cared?

[LiberalElite]

28. I don't know. If we are stuck with them leaving it unplugged is one solution -

Hey, my tv is 8 years old - i may never get another one - I rarely watch it anymore nt

[dixiegrrrrl]

33. Your tv may not be one of the smart ones?????

If it has a camera peep hole, put tape over it.

None of puters have cameras or microphones, so that is not an issue for us.

[LiberalElite]

35. I doubt that it's a smart one and

from all I hear about smart this and smart that, I don't want smart (except for the phone). Smart is, well, not so.

[REP]

29. Best way to buy a TV: buy the cheapest one you like with the fewest extras

Long boring story here, but it involves a work project the requires many TVs to be compared and evaluated. After weeks of this, the conclusion seems to be that the more expensive and more extra features (and higher price tag), the bigger the disappointment. So buy a big cheap one you like that has none or few extra features beyond being a TV.

[Xithras]

31. This is the reality of "Cloud based" anything.

The voice recognition systems used by MANY different devices are cloud based. The devices themselves are incapable of doing the voice pattern matching locally, so they shift the work to a remote server.

Apple dealt with this by building in a rudimentary voice recognition system that looks for the specific "Hey Siri" command. Google did the same with their "OK Google" command. Until that command is recognized locally, no voice recognition takes place (both Siri and Google DO transmit your words remotely after the phrase is recognized).

The problem is that user studies suggest that most people DO NOT like speaking this way. It's unnatural and non-conversational to begin every sentence by naming the subject. Users want to hold more natural conversations with the devices instead of learning different commands. LG, Samsung and even Amazon with the Echo have embraced a newer model to allow for more natural conversations with the devices. Unfortunately, this means that they now have to listen to ALL conversations in the room so they can try to determine whether you're talking to the device or talking to another person. And because this analysis is cloud based, those conversations are analyzed in a central server.

[dixiegrrrrl]

37. TY for that info.

[Jester Messiah]

32. They should incorporate a "clippy" character.

"You appear to be watching an adult video! Would you like some tips on technique?" (insert ads for Kleenex & Jergens here)

[rbrnmw]

34. Good hopefully they will forward my comments

to the various "news" channels. I scream at my teevee all the time.

[Baclava]

38. You can turn it off

"To do this, head to the Settings menu and select Smart Features. Then scroll down to Voice Recognition and switch it off. While you will no longer be able to use the "Hi TV" command to activate the voice features, you can still access them by pressing the microphone button on your remote."

"It sounds scary, but it's a bit overblown. Many devices have similar speech features that are always listening; that includes the Moto X , Nexus devices, Amazon Echo , Microsoft Kinect and even the iPhone (when the device is plugged in and the Hey, Siri command is enabled)."

http://www.cnet.com/how-to/samsung-smart-tv-spying/

[inanna]

40. Actually, it's quite disturbing to me.

Especially when you consider this thread posted just a little while ago:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027619772

Not so sure this is "overblown".

It's great that you can turn it off though. That's at least a bit of a relief.