Have you
ever felt like you're being watched? Like someone is listening to everything
you're saying and watching what you're doing in your house? Well if you own a
Samsung Smart TV, that might indeed be true. Many articles are popping up
recently stating that Samsung is warning its customers not to disclose personal
information in front of their SmartTVs. What Samsung failed to mention
previously is that all sounds are recorded and monitored, then sent to a third
party in order to see if any commands are given etc. for learning purposes.
However, all personal and sensitive data said in front of the TV goes too.
However,
Samsung did in fact state that the voice activation is only activated by the
remote control. This means the TV isn't listening 100% of the time, only when
you tell it to. However, Samsung just wanted to be clear about their privacy statement
to their consumers. A lawyer for the EFF said that the recording were probably
being sent to a third party company that analyzed them for text to speech
recognition software. However, they agreed that consumers should know exactly
where those pieces of data are going. Accrording to the article, the third
party company is a company called Nuance. They are known for technologies
specializing in voice recognition and text to speech.
This
raises another issue with privacy. Are the recordings safe guarded as intellectual
property? As technology evolves, the laws surrounding them must evolve as well.
This is not the first time something like this has happened either. Previously,
LG ran into the same issue when a consumer found that his TV was gathering data
about his viewing habits.
Both LG
and Samsung have since began to work on opt-out fix. LG has implemented it in
2013, allowing consumers to opt out of the data collection program and choose
what they wanted third party to see in terms of their usage. However, Samsung,
for now, is sticking by what they have that third parties can only hear when
they opt to use voice activation software on the TV and at no other times can
the third parties listen in.
With
third parties constantly trying to learn everything about us, from targeted ads
to tvs that listen to us, privacy agreements are constantly changing and the
boundaries of what companies can and can't do are becoming less clear. In
addition, almost everything in terms of internet privacy seems to be opt-out
rather than opt-in. This means that people must be much more vigilant and keep
updated every time an agreement is changed.
One
example in recent memory is the huge changes to Facebook's privacy agreement.
There were multiple emails sent out and everyone who logged in could view
exactly what was changing. However, that too was opt-out. Suddenly everyone's
profiles became a lot more public and a lot less private.
Allowing
companies to continue creating opt-out programs such as these with no clear
line as to what the limit is means they will continue trying to get the most information
they can as long as it is profitable for them to do so.
Article: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-31296188?ocid=socialflow_twitter
This is a very interesting blog and you make a good point. I had read about the Samsung Smart TV listening in on conversations for data being shipped off to third party companies. Things like this make me wonder why companies, who consist of people, do not do what is right more often than what makes more money. Someone in the company should be questioning these privacy invasions and consider how they would feel if their living room TV was to spy on them. With technology changing so rapidly around us, it is hard to keep on top of every software update and opt out of monitoring technology which is why I agree on how everything should be opt-in.
ReplyDeleteIn some ways, I'm not surprised these things are coming up. We live in a day and age where companies no longer try to market their products to us but try to make the products they think we need from the information they gather before we even realize we need them. I would not be surprised if our future was similar to George Orwell’s “1984” where every single word was recorded and monitored. In a way, I’m surprised that people are still surprised about these things. Come on, you (the general public) should have known this was bound to happen. The internet allows anything technologically related to advance and grow at an alarming rate. New programs are out every few weeks. I’m not shocked that there aren't many regulations because congress always takes months to come out with new laws, why would this be any different. Change will come only after there are many major lawsuits; otherwise, companies are bound to do anything that makes them rich, no matter if it’s ethically correct.
ReplyDeleteI think that more and more we will see opt-out as opposed to opt-in. For most companies, the more they know about you the better. While in some instances there are benefits (such as the voice recognition you mentioned), there are times when it's just simple data collection. In these cases, who would opt-in considering there is no benefit? I believe that most people would not opt-in, and that because of this, companies go with opt-out instead, until users make a big stink about it.
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