WASHINGTON – That new smartTV you bought for the Super Bowl could be spying on you.
The Daily Beast reports that the privacy policy that comes with Samsung’s smartTV with voice recognition warns users that their voice could be recorded and sent to a third-party to help improve the technology.
But the TVs aren’t just recording basic commands like “Turn to Channel 7.” They could also record private conversations or comments.
According to CNET, the privacy policy states “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.”
CNET reports that Samsung doesn’t keep the voice data nor sells it to third parities. The data is sent to a third party only during the command itself, in order to comply with the verbal request.
Samsung also tells CNET that it uses encryption and other safety measure to protect viewers’ data.
TV users can also deactivate the voice recognition option or turn off the Wi-Fi to avoid sharing information. However Samsung tells CNET that it may still collect text and other usage data.
