Samsung amends Smart TV privacy policy amid spying fears

PanARMENIAN.Net - Samsung has amended its Smart TV privacy policy in an attempt to allay fears that some of its sets are eavesdropping on users, Digital Spy reports.

The company previously stated that customers who use the Voice Recognition features are at risk of "transmitting personal or other sensitive information" to third parties, but has since reworded its literature.

Samsung has assured Smart TV users that it does not retain voice data, and applies encryption to secure personal information.

However, the firm insists that analysing vocal commands is essential for improving the Voice Recognition service.

"To provide you the Voice Recognition feature, some interactive voice commands may be transmitted (along with information about your device, including device identifiers) to a third-party service provider (currently, Nuance Communications, Inc) that converts your interactive voice commands to text and to the extent necessary to provide the Voice Recognition features to you," reads the reworded policy.

"Samsung may collect and your device may capture voice commands and associated texts so that we can provide you with Voice Recognition features and evaluate and improve the features."

Samsung also points out that users are informed Voice Recognition is active by the presence of a microphone logo on screen, and have the option to deactivate it.