Samsung has come under fire after it was discovered that its Smart TV voice recognition software could record and transmit private conversations.
A clause in the Smart TV’s privacy policy appears to claim that words spoken in front of the product could be captured and sent to unspecified third parties. The feature relates to the voice recognition software, which allows users to give verbal commands to their Smart TV.
"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," the policy reads.
"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."
The potential privacy hazard was brought to light on Twitter by Parker Higgins, a member of San Francisco activist group Electronic Frontier Foundation. Higgins compared the software to the "telescreen" from George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984, a device installed in homes which both receives video and transmits it to the malevolent government authorities.
The South Korean electronics manufacturer issued a strongly worded statement to the Guardian denying the claims.
"Samsung takes consumer privacy very seriously. In all of our Smart TVs any data gathering or their use is carried out with utmost transparency and we provide meaningful options for consumers to freely choose or to opt out of a service. We employ industry-standard security safeguards and practices, including data encryption, to secure consumers’ personal information and prevent unauthorised collection or use.
"Voice recognition, which allows the user to control the TV using voice commands, is a Samsung Smart TV feature that can be activated or deactivated by the user. Should consumers enable the voice recognition capability, the voice data consists of TV commands or search sentences, only. Users can easily recognise if the voice recognition feature is activated because a microphone icon appears on the screen.
"Samsung does not retain voice data or sell it to third parties. If a consumer consents and uses the voice recognition feature, voice data is provided to a third party during a requested voice command search. At that time, the voice data is sent to a server, which searches for the requested content then returns the desired content to the TV."
This latest blow for the electronics giant comes after disappointing financial results.
