Some worrying wording in Samsung’s privacy policy suggests that unknown companies could be listening in to your private conversations through your Samsung Smart TV.
They probably aren’t, of course. But that’s the kind of worryingly vague and darkly suggestive language used in a recently spotted privacy policy from the South Korean tech giant.
“Samsung may collect and your device may capture voice commands and associated texts so that we can provide you with Voice Recognition features and evaluate and improve the features,” reads the Samsung Smart TV policy in question.
So far so normal. But it’s the very next line that has people worried.
“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,” it says.
Of course, the implication here is that your speech will be used to improve the voice recognition experience itself. But the reference to personal and sensitive information being transmitted to unnamed third parties has left several online commentators disturbed.
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Samsung, for its part, has issued a response of sorts to The Daily Beast.
“Samsung takes consumer privacy very seriously,” it says. “In all of our Smart TVs we employ industry-standard security safeguards and practices, including data encryption, to secure consumers’ personal information and prevent unauthorized collection or use.”
The company also points out that the voice recognition feature “can be activated or deactivated by the user,” and that “The TV owner can also disconnect the TV from the Wi-Fi network.”
Still, a little more clarification on who those third parties are would be nice.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
