SAMSUNG ‘SMART TV’ RECORDS “PERSONAL” CONVERSATIONS & SENDS THEM TO THIRD PARTIES
Company's new privacy policy
causes consternation
by PAUL JOSEPH WATSON | NOVEMBER 3, 2014
Samsung’s new global privacy
policy for its line of Smart TVs states that a user’s personal conversations
will be recorded by the device’s microphone and transmitted to third parties.
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A 46-page privacy policy
which is now included in all newly purchased Samsung Smart TVs states that
voice recognition technology “may capture voice commands and associated texts”
in order to “improve the features” of the system.
The policy, a summary of
which is also posted online,
ominously advises users to, “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 through your use of Voice
Recognition.”
Writing about the privacy
policy for Salon.com, Michael Price, counsel in the Liberty and National
Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, said
he was now “terrified” of his new TV, noting that voice recognition is just one
feature that could be used to spy on users. The television also logs website
visits, has a built-in camera for facial recognition and uses tracking cookies
to detect “when you have viewed particular content or a particular email
message.”
“I do not doubt that this
data is important to providing customized content and convenience, but it is
also incredibly personal, constitutionally protected information that should
not be for sale to advertisers and should require a warrant for law enforcement
to access,” writes Price,
adding that current privacy laws offer little protection against “third party”
data.
Price also draws attention
to comments made in
2012 by former CIA director David Petraeus, who hailed the
“Internet of things” as a transformational boon for “clandestine tradecraft”.
In other words, it will soon be easier than ever before to keep tabs on the
population since everything they use will be connected to the web, with total
disregard for privacy considerations. The spooks won’t have to plant a bug in
your home or your vehicle, you will be doing it for them.
As we have documented, the
Internet of things is the process of manufacturing every new product with a
system that broadcasts wirelessly via the world wide web, allowing industry and
the government to spy ubiquitously on every aspect of your existence.
In recording private
conversations for potential third party use, Samsung is merely mimicking what
games console makers have done for years.
Since its launch in 2010,
Microsoft’s X-Box Kinect games device has a video camera and a microphone that
records speech. The company informs its
users that they “should not expect any level of privacy
concerning your use of the live communication features,” while Microsoft also
“may access or disclose information about you, including the content of your
communications.”
Last year, Microsoft
was forced to deny
claims that the Xbox One’s Kinect camera could see gamers’
genitals after video footage emerged which suggested the device’s IR camera was
so sophisticated that it could capture the outline of a user’s penis.
Gamers also complained that Kinect was monitoring their Skype conversations for
swearing and then punishing them with account bans.
With Christmas fast
approaching, millions more people will splash the cash on games consoles and
smart TVs completely oblivious to the fact that they are paying to have their
private conversations recorded and potentially transmitted to third parties.
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Paul Joseph Watson is the
editor at large of Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com.
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