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Stop your Samsung Smart TV from spying on you
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Editors’ note, March 7, 2017: This post is getting considerable attention in March 2017, now that a cache of Wikileaks documents has allegedly revealed that the CIA might be using these same Samsung TVs to spy on you. However, if that’s true, it’s unlikely that the steps in this guide would protect you. Read more about the so-called “Weeping Angel” hack.
Original post:
It sounds like something straight out of George Orwell’s 1984. Samsung’s Smart TV privacy policy, which most people never bother reading, reveals that your shiny new television set may be capable of spying on you. Samsung warns that customers should “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.”
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).
This so-called scandal also affects only a small number of Samsung Smart TV models. While most of Samsung’s Smart TVs have some sort of voice function, almost all of them require you press the microphone button on the remote before it starts listening. The models that can recognize your voice are the ones that include a built-in camera and microphone, such as the Samsung PN60F8500 . The TV won’t actually begin to process anything you say, however, until you say a voice command, such as “Hi TV.”
Regardless, if you are fearful that Samsung and an unnamed third-party partner (the company actually translating your voice to text) are listening to your conversations, you can simply turn off the Voice Recognition feature.
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.
