Not in front of the TV — your Samsung smart TV may transmit anything you say to third parties

Samsung smart TV manual on left, George Orwell’s 1984 on right
Credit: Samsung/George Orwell/EFF/TechCrunch

The headline says most of it: Voice commands are not acted on completely within your TV, but are transmitted over the ‘Net for processing.

Just as important:
● it’s not just Samsung — in 2013, LG was found to be gathering information about users’ viewing habits, without user permission*
● any smart device which accepts voice commands is probably transmitting them over the ‘Net
● some devices have voice commands on by default

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/02/05/your-samsung-smarttv-is-spying-on-you-basically.html

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-31296188

http://techcrunch.com/2015/02/08/telescreen/

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/02/09/samsung_listens_in_to_everything_you_say_to_your_smart_tellie/

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* http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/lg-investigates-smart-tv-%E2%80%9Cunauthorised-spying%E2%80%9D-claim / Samsung warning customers discussing personal information smart television set warning TV viewers control Samsung Smart TV voice activation feature listen what is said share with Samsung third parties privacy campaigners technology telescreens George Orwell's 1984 spied on citizens data sharing warning section Samsung's privacy policy net-connected Smart TV sets record what is said when a button on a remote control TV set will be listening commands queries remote your spoken words personal sensitive information data captured transmitted third party Corynne McSherry intellectual property lawyer Electronic Frontier Foundation EFF campaigns on digital rights issues Daily Beast third party company speech-to-text conversion Samsung customer who that third party was transmitted in a secure form activist for the EFF circulated the policy statement on Twitter George Orwell's description of the telescreens novel 1984 widespread sharing policy statement Samsung statement voice activation works voice recognition feature activated TV's remote control privacy policy owners make informed choices consumer privacy consumer consents voice recognition feature voice data server retain voice data audio captured smart-TV owners microphone icon visible on the screen third party handling translation speech to text speech-to-text Nuance voice recognition smart net-connected TV problems IT consultant LG TV software update data collection share information /