As it was revealed that Samsung Electronics’ smart TV can transmit personal information, e.g. voice including customers’ private conversation, to a 3rd party, there is a controversy over invasion of privacy.
On February 10 major foreign media cited Parker Higgins, an Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) activist, and took issue with the part of the privacy policy on Samsung Electronics’ English website related to the smart TV.
SEC’s smart TV collects voice commands to support the voice recognition function. The purpose is to provide the improved function by analyzing them. However, it is now revealed that users’ conversations, unrelated to voice commands, can be transmitted as well in this process. Both the phrases for improvement of the voice command function and unrelated privacy can be transmitted to a 3rd party.
According to the supplementary description of the smart TV on SEC’s online privacy protection policy page, it is clearly stated that, if necessary for the provision of the ‘smart TV voice recognition function, some voice commands may be provided to a 3rd-party service.’ SEC also said that ‘to provide an improved voice recognition function, voice commands and related text message information may be collected.’ It added that ‘as personal or sensitive information including users’ voice may also be transmitted to a 3rd party in the process of collecting voice commands, caution must be exercised.’
The smart TV in the living room is a device that is highly likely to record users’ private conversations.
“We think protection of consumer information is very important,” said SEC. “The smart TV’s voice recognition function can be used with the consent of the user, and we do not retain this information or provide it to a 3rd party.”