MADELEINE McCANN MYSTERY
Would you like to react to this message? Create an account in a few clicks or log in to continue.

Not in front of the telly: Warning over 'listening' TV

+2
chirpyinsect
candyfloss
6 posters

Go down

Not in front of the telly: Warning over 'listening' TV Empty Not in front of the telly: Warning over 'listening' TV

Post  candyfloss Mon 09 Feb 2015, 5:30 pm

I thought this was an April fool joke, bit early Laughing


Not in front of the telly: Warning over 'listening' TV


Samsung is warning customers about discussing personal information in front of their smart television set.

The warning applies to TV viewers who control their Samsung Smart TV using its voice activation feature.

Such TV sets "listen" to some of what is said in front of them and may share details they hear with Samsung or third parties, it said.

Privacy campaigners said the technology smacked of the telescreens, in George Orwell's 1984, which spied on citizens.

Data sharing

The warning came to light via a story in online news magazine the Daily Beast which published an excerpt of a section of Samsung's privacy policy for its net-connected Smart TV sets.

The policy explains that the TV set will be listening to people in the same room to try to spot when commands or queries are issued via the remote. It goes on to say: "If your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party."

Corynne McSherry, an intellectual property lawyer for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) which campaigns on digital rights issues, told the Daily Beast that the third party was probably the company providing speech-to-text conversion for Samsung.

She added: "If I were the customer, I might like to know who that third party was, and I'd definitely like to know whether my words were being transmitted in a secure form."

Soon after, an activist for the EFF circulated the policy statement on Twitter comparing it to George Orwell's description of the telescreens in his novel 1984 that listen to what people say in their homes.

Couple watching TV

In response to the widespread sharing of its policy statement, Samsung has issued a statement to clarify how voice activation works. It emphasised that the voice recognition feature is activated using the TV's remote control.

It said the privacy policy was an attempt to be transparent with owners in order to help them make informed choices about whether to use some features on its Smart TV sets, adding that it took consumer privacy "very seriously".

Samsung said: "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."

It added that it did not retain voice data or sell the audio being captured. Smart-TV owners would always know if voice activation was turned on because a microphone icon would be visible on the screen, it said.

The third-party handling the translation from speech to text has not been named.

Samsung is not the first maker of a smart, net-connected TV to run into problems with the data the set collects. In late 2013, a UK IT consultant found his LG TV was gathering information about his viewing habits.

Publicity about the issue led LG to create a software update which ensured data collection was turned off for those who did not want to share information.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-31296188

_________________
Not in front of the telly: Warning over 'listening' TV 20ztic6  
 Not in front of the telly: Warning over 'listening' TV Lines-animals-539529  

Sometimes you will never know the true value of a moment until it becomes a memory.......... Dr Seuss
candyfloss
candyfloss
Admin

Posts : 12561
Join date : 2014-08-18
Age : 71

Back to top Go down

Not in front of the telly: Warning over 'listening' TV Empty Re: Not in front of the telly: Warning over 'listening' TV

Post  chirpyinsect Mon 09 Feb 2015, 6:33 pm

So Big Brother will know what you are saying when you are watching Big Brother.
chirpyinsect
chirpyinsect

Posts : 4836
Join date : 2014-10-18

Back to top Go down

Not in front of the telly: Warning over 'listening' TV Empty Re: Not in front of the telly: Warning over 'listening' TV

Post  candyfloss Mon 09 Feb 2015, 6:35 pm

chirpyinsect wrote:So Big Brother will know what you are saying when you are watching Big Brother.

Not in front of the telly: Warning over 'listening' TV Mini-graphics-smileys-487265

_________________
Not in front of the telly: Warning over 'listening' TV 20ztic6  
 Not in front of the telly: Warning over 'listening' TV Lines-animals-539529  

Sometimes you will never know the true value of a moment until it becomes a memory.......... Dr Seuss
candyfloss
candyfloss
Admin

Posts : 12561
Join date : 2014-08-18
Age : 71

Back to top Go down

Not in front of the telly: Warning over 'listening' TV Empty Re: Not in front of the telly: Warning over 'listening' TV

Post  Mimi Mon 09 Feb 2015, 6:49 pm

I`m paranoid enough - I already cover the camera hole on my laptop with a plaster Rolling Eyes
Mimi
Mimi

Posts : 3616
Join date : 2014-09-01

Back to top Go down

Not in front of the telly: Warning over 'listening' TV Empty Re: Not in front of the telly: Warning over 'listening' TV

Post  dogs don't lie Mon 09 Feb 2015, 9:00 pm

Mimi wrote:I`m paranoid enough - I already cover the camera hole on my laptop with a plaster  Rolling Eyes

TeHe so have I!

_________________
Fight for Madeleine x
dogs don't lie
dogs don't lie

Posts : 2877
Join date : 2014-11-24
Age : 48
Location : Ireland

Back to top Go down

Not in front of the telly: Warning over 'listening' TV Empty Re: Not in front of the telly: Warning over 'listening' TV

Post  Châtelaine Mon 09 Feb 2015, 9:03 pm

Me too ... :-)
Châtelaine
Châtelaine

Posts : 2496
Join date : 2014-08-27
Location : France

Back to top Go down

Not in front of the telly: Warning over 'listening' TV Empty Re: Not in front of the telly: Warning over 'listening' TV

Post  End Mon 09 Feb 2015, 10:10 pm

..and all of the engineering dept. in my campus do too Smile
End
End

Posts : 50
Join date : 2014-08-29

Back to top Go down

Not in front of the telly: Warning over 'listening' TV Empty Re: Not in front of the telly: Warning over 'listening' TV

Post  Sponsored content


Sponsored content


Back to top Go down

Back to top

- Similar topics

 
Permissions in this forum:
You cannot reply to topics in this forum