A couple of weeks ago I was shopping for a new TV. Since I was using my daughter’s old college dorm room television, I thought it was time to upgrade. Besides, I wanted something new for my “office parlor,” (aka, my “girl cave” also know as home office) so I started shopping. On the internet, of course. I was initially intrigued by Samsung’s Smart TV. It connects through the internet – IPTV – internet protocol television. I already have a VoIP phone in the office parlor so this “smart” TV appealed to me. Ultimately, I bought a Samsung, but not the Smart version. After reading several news articles I’m feeling good about my decision. The Samsung Smart TV has a remote control device that, when enabled, permits voice recognition commands. I could say, for instance, “turn to CNN” and I wouldn’t have to squirm around, find the remote, figure out the right combination, press, and <crap> that’s the wrong channel – you get the image, right?
Concern struck when it was noticed and reported that Samsung’s “privacy” policy said, “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.” Roll that back – “your spoken words … will be captured … and transmitted to a third party.” Holy Moly. With voice recognition enabled, some unknown mystery third party could hear whatever is going on in my office parlor? That cannot be in any way good.
When I’m home, alone, usually while getting ready for work in the morning, I listen to cable news. Sometimes I shout and scream at the commentary. I mean no one is home but me. It’s like no one hears a tree falling in the woods, right? But to think that some third person somewhere in a NSA basement room could be recording and decoding my unfiltered bluster caught me cold.
Turns out, the third person is Nuance Communications. Nuance Communications owns and distributes Dragon Dictation, a voice recognition software that turns voice into text. In fact, I used Dragon Dictation during a recent hearing to capture testimony in real time. (PS, it was a good idea in theory but not in practice.) Since the story blew up, naturally Samsung deployed its crisis team who released a blog post with a longer explanation and statement. Here’s the link to the story: http://www.cnet.com/news/samsung-changes-smarttv-privacy-policy-in-wake-of-spying-fears/
The explanation says, in part, “Samsung will collect your interactive voice commands only when you make a specific search request to the Smart TV by clicking the activation button either on the remote control or on your screen and speaking into the microphone on the remote control.”
I’m not sure this explanation makes me feel any better, although I’m quite satisfied that I didn’t buy the Smart TV.
Concern struck when it was noticed and reported that Samsung’s “privacy” policy said, “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.” Roll that back – “your spoken words … will be captured … and transmitted to a third party.” Holy Moly. With voice recognition enabled, some unknown mystery third party could hear whatever is going on in my office parlor? That cannot be in any way good.
When I’m home, alone, usually while getting ready for work in the morning, I listen to cable news. Sometimes I shout and scream at the commentary. I mean no one is home but me. It’s like no one hears a tree falling in the woods, right? But to think that some third person somewhere in a NSA basement room could be recording and decoding my unfiltered bluster caught me cold.
Turns out, the third person is Nuance Communications. Nuance Communications owns and distributes Dragon Dictation, a voice recognition software that turns voice into text. In fact, I used Dragon Dictation during a recent hearing to capture testimony in real time. (PS, it was a good idea in theory but not in practice.) Since the story blew up, naturally Samsung deployed its crisis team who released a blog post with a longer explanation and statement. Here’s the link to the story: http://www.cnet.com/news/samsung-changes-smarttv-privacy-policy-in-wake-of-spying-fears/
The explanation says, in part, “Samsung will collect your interactive voice commands only when you make a specific search request to the Smart TV by clicking the activation button either on the remote control or on your screen and speaking into the microphone on the remote control.”
I’m not sure this explanation makes me feel any better, although I’m quite satisfied that I didn’t buy the Smart TV.