Samsung defends its privacy policy

Samsung says there is no foundation to claims their Smart TV is recording users’ conversations without consent

Samsung addresses Smart TV voice recognition privacy concerns

Auckland, NZ – February 10, 2015 - Samsung would like to respond to concerns that have been raised about Samsung's Smart TV voice recognition feature and a clause in Samsung's Smart TV privacy policy.

Samsung takes its consumers’ privacy extremely seriously and at all times aims to be as transparent as possible with regard to privacy policies.

Voice recognition allows the user to choose to control the TV using voice commands in addition to their remote control and is a Samsung Smart TV feature which can be activated and deactivated by the user.

The claims made by overseas tech news media that Samsung is transmitting collected voice data to a third party to "sell ads" and that “users' conversations are recorded without their knowledge”, are completely groundless.

Firstly, it’s important to note that a Samsung Smart TV user is given a choice to activate or deactivate the voice recognition.

Secondly, users can easily recognise if the voice recognition feature is activated because a microphone icon appears on the screen when consumers enable the voice recognition capability.

Thirdly, voice recognition is enabled only when users agree to the separate Samsung Privacy Policy and Terms of Use regarding this function when initially setting up the TV.

If a consumer consents and uses the voice recognition feature, voice data is only given to a third party voice-to-text conversion provider during a requested voice command search. (Data is not sent to a third party during simple TV control commands such as ‘channel up’ or ‘channel down’). At that time, the voice data is sent to a server which searches for the requested content then returns the desired content to the TV.

As previously stated, Samsung takes consumer privacy very seriously. Samsung employs industry-standard security safeguards and practices, including data encryption, to secure consumers’ personal information and prevent unauthorised collection or use.

About Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a global leader in technology, opening new possibilities for people everywhere. Through relentless innovation and discovery, we are transforming the worlds of TVs, smartphones, tablets, PCs, cameras, home appliances, printers, LTE systems, medical devices, semiconductors and LED solutions. We employ 286,000 people across 80 countries with annual sales of US$216.7 billion. To discover more, please visit www.samsung.com.

ENDS

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