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Rise of sinister smart TVs

Bonnie Tubbs
By Bonnie Tubbs, ITWeb telecoms editor.
Johannesburg, 11 Feb 2015
Privacy fears have been raised over Samsung's smart TVs that send voice-transmitted data to a third-party.
Privacy fears have been raised over Samsung's smart TVs that send voice-transmitted data to a third-party.

Locally available smart TVs with voice recognition features enabled are sending voice-transmitted data to a third-party, creating fears around privacy threats to consumers.

This week, it emerged through Samsung's global personal privacy policy on its smart TVs, that the connected entertainment device can listen in to, and record, users' conversations, which are then stored on a third-party server.

"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," the policy reads.

In a response to ITWeb's query, Samsung explains the "third-party" in this case is Nuance Communications - the same company behind voice recognition app Dragon Dictate.

The warning - and the implications that come with it - has got privacy advocates and consumers hot and bothered. The UK's BBC cites privacy campaigners as saying the technology "smacked of the telescreens, in Orwell's 1984, which spied on citizens". Canada's CBC News quotes one of the country's most respected privacy activists as saying Internet of things devices are "unbelievably outrageous" intruders.

At the end of 2013, LG roused similar concerns when a UK-based IT consultant detailed how his smart TV was sending data about which channels were being watched.

Then, in August last year, Daily Mail reported that experts monitored streams of data coming from 2013 and 2014 models of smart TVs from LG, Samsung, Sony, Panasonic and Toshiba - and discovered all the brands tracked people's viewing habits to some extent. If viewers reject conditions it seems they cannot access some features on their TV sets.

Be afraid

World Wide Worx MD Arthur Goldstuck says, while the intention is not to collect private information but to provide tailored services, the mechanism for doing so via TV sets is far more intrusive and open to exploitation.

"The core weakness of the voice recognition system is that the intelligence sits not on the TV itself but on a server, which has to analyse the voice stream to determine what instruction has been given. Very little information or assurance is provided to customers about how the information is collected, analysed and stored, so anyone can be forgiven for fearing that it may be misused."

Essentially, Samsung is saying in its warning that people need to watch what they say in front of their TV, in their own homes. "Samsung is warning people that any conversation captured by the smart TV may make its way to the servers intended to process voice instructions and may be stored there. The warning would be irrelevant if the conversation could not be accessed by a third-party," says Goldstuck.

He says, while smart devices with microphone-based systems all carry the danger of a sense that privacy is being violated, the greatest danger with Samsung's TV lies in unethical employees of companies accessing private conversations.

"In general, the capability of everyday technology to provide a spying mechanism - whether governmental, commercial or personal - represents the greatest long-term danger."

And, while Goldstuck says it may be extreme to liken this to the Orwellian scenario - which was more about control than spying - "if it is not nipped in the bud, it would be seen as the beginnings of the 1984 scenario, and could well be used as such by totalitarian regimes".

Creepy tech

ICT expert Adrian Schofield points out the danger posed by Samsung's smart TV is no worse than consumers' current exposure to risk of doing business online or sharing personal information on social networks. "Be sensible. If you don't know exactly where your information is going, don't send it."

Goldstuck says an extreme of the creepiness spectrum, in the red zone, is that some malware is designed to activate cameras and microphones on laptops and tablets, and transmit the recorded or streamed data back to the perpetrator.

"Somewhere in the middle of the spectrum, Apple stores all voice instruction or communication that goes into Siri for two years - although claiming it carries no identifier and is encrypted.

"On the creepiness spectrum, the smart TVs lie a little to the other side of Siri in the red zone direction. Voice-activated cameras and in-car systems lie more towards the green zone, as none of that depends on being online and therefore saving the voice samples."

Molehill mountain

Swift Consulting CEO and tech blogger Liron Segev feels the issue is being blown out of proportion, as it comes down to a simple case of Samsung doing its own analysis on its own product to the end of streamlining its services to consumers. "Realistically, if they wanted to spy, they could just turn on the TV's microphone and you would never know. They could even switch on your camera and you would never know."

He says the commotion around what is being seen as a sinister smart device intruder stems from poorly written terms and conditions.

"It's a storm in a teacup. If you think about it, [Samsung] could put a microphone in your microwave if they wanted to spy on you - why would they do it so overtly with their smart TVs? And if Samsung didn't include voice recognition technology, they would be seen as lagging. You can't please all the people all the time."

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