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New Samsung TV Watches You Watching It

CanHasDIY writes "Straight out of 1984, Samsung has unveiled a new series of televisions with integrated cameras and microphones, complete with facial and voice recognition software. Best of all, there appears to be no physical indication of the mic and camera's status, so consumers have no way of knowing when they're being monitored, or by whom... and if you don't find the idea of a TV that watches you creepy enough, apparently Samsung's Terms of Service include a clause allowing third-party apps to make use of the monitoring system, and use the data gathered for their own purposes. Nothing Orwellian about that..."

5 of 320 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Good luck with that by multiben · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Maybe you could buy a different brand? Or is that too easy?

  2. Re:Omnipresent Surveillance by TheCouchPotatoFamine · · Score: 5, Insightful

    the best answer is always "to protect others whose freedom of political and spiritual expression is threatened by your actions". Always.

    --
    CS majors know the time/space tradeoff, but they never get taught the 3rd, crucial, tradeoff of the set: comprehension!
  3. Re:Omnipresent Surveillance by gbjbaanb · · Score: 5, Insightful

    actually, it's even easier. Leave the entire TV in its box. In the shop.

  4. DRM by jquirke · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The television has detected more persons in the room than this content is licensed for.

    Please reduce the number of persons in the room, or press the RED button to authorise a payment of a $X per additional person in the room.

  5. Status light? by hantms · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Please explain to me why not having an indicator light is significant. The manufacturer controls how the entire thing is built, so it could also easily build in a function to use the camera but without making any status light come on. As I type this the status light of the camera in my Lenovo laptop is off.. But is the camera off, really?

    Bit of a silly article. If you don't like web cams (or any camera) then just say so. Makes no sense to fully trust Logitech but not Samsung or anyone else.

    Encore for the tinfoilers: every iPhone comes with one or two cameras. And you really don't know about the software that runs it.

    Next.