We like it when things are made easy for us. Take for example the Samsung Smart TV where, if you’re too lazy to go through the odious task of pushing the necessary buttons. you can simply tell your telly what to do. Nifty, right?

Except for one little line buried deep inside the ‘Privacy Policy’ for Samsung’s Internet-connected SmartTV. This bit, taken from the Daily Beast:

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.

Hmm…so what does that mean for you? Well Samsung are using a third-party service to convert your spoken words into commands the telly can then use to perform the desired task. This isn’t terrible news, but how secure is this encryption used to send this information?

It seems plausible then that hackers might be able to gain access to this information, meaning someone out there could listen in on your conversation whilst the SmartTV voice feature is being used. Samsung did confirm the following with the BBC:

The third party handling the translation from speech to text is a firm called Nuance, which specialises in voice recognition.

They also said, in a statement to the Daily Beast, that users did have the option to turn off the feature and disconnect it from the Wi-Fi network.

This isn’t the first time that a net-connected TV has caused controversy. In 2013 a man in the UK found that his LG TV was gathering information about what he was watching.

Another user who looked closely at the privacy policy he was being asked to sign off on found it problematic. The Daily Beast again:

Michael Price, counsel in the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at the NYU School of Law, said the details in his new smart TV’s lengthy privacy policy made him “afraid to use it.

We suggest you maybe kick it old school then and go through the hardship of using your remote’s buttons. That, or keep your chat about this weekend’s antics down to a minimum.

[sources:bbc&thedailybeast]