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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..."
Look guys, it's just too easy.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
Can't be. I don't recall reading about Apple releasing a television set that watches you while you watch it.
Omnipresent surveillance is inevitable, and will change society dramatically. The question what we choose to do with it.
There is NO TV!
This sig is not paradoxical or ironic.
Its too HARD!
This sig is not paradoxical or ironic.
Try not to show fear while watching... That is dangerous. "Your worst enemy, he reflected, was your nervous system. At any moment the tension inside you was liable to translate itself into some visible symptom."
.. the wrong way round! And possibly even more boring.
In what way is this different from your typical smartphone, tablet, most laptops, and soon I imagine, a Samsung fridge?
This is
Dennis Onstenk
I'd just put duct tape over the lens, or better yet, open the thing up and snip the wires going to the mic and camera(s)
The warranty would go bye-bye but my privacy doesn't.
What about Max Headroom?
More and more personal and household devices are connecting to the internet, from your television to your car navigation systems to your light switches. CIA Director David Petraeus cannot wait to spy on you through them.
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/03/petraeus-tv-remote/
.....which were provided to Pennsylvanian teens, and had integrated cameras, but there was no indication to the users that they were being recorded in their bedrooms (by the government).
My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
So many questions, but the first of them all is "why would I now buy a Samsung TV"? I mean, I think they make a pretty decent TV, but they're not good enough to invite all of Samsung and its affiliates into my living room. What am I getting out the exchange here?
The webcam on my laptop has an LED light up when powered on. This TV lacks such an indicator.
Who watches the watcher watchers?
crazy dynamite monkey
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.
Did you somehow manage to miss that part of the summary? It's only most of the summary, after all. In short, there's plenty to see here, only it's third parties doing the seeing, and you apparently don't get any say in when they do the seeing, or what they use the footage for.
Write failed: Broken pipe
1.) rig a secondary/tertiary monitor output on a nearby desktop and wire it to the TV's camera/audio input.
2.) set the computer output to a nonstop 24/7 loop of "Friday" by Rebecca Black, along with a slide show that alternates between Goatse, 2 girls 1 cup, and horse porn.
3.) bask in the fact that somwhere, someone is regretting the release of this technology.
4.) Don't EVER cross the wires from step 1.
5.) Profit.
Duh!
Think of it more like "chat roulette".
I have a Samsung TV, and overall I really like it. But with shit like this going on I won't be buying one again.
Bye, Samsung!
"The crows seemed to be calling his name, thought Caw."
I hope it takes a page from the Wii and reminds people to stop watching for a while. They could couple it with shots of the consumer looking like a total zombie to convince them to get the heck up and move around for a while.
Never say never. Ah!! I did it again!
Does it mean if it sees a break-in, it will call the cops for me?
I'll go out on a limb here and say:
This TV is going to end up capturing so much footage of bored men fapping to porn.
I like big butts and I cannot lie.
It's simply convergence. Think of the television as a large smartphone. In the near future when you sit down at the Christmas feast you will be able to share with friends and family in far flung places. You'll be able to attend meetings and interact at lectures. You can already do this at your pc? Then you already understand, just think of interacting in the lounge-room rather than the basement. The television is just an oversized monitor now, it's just getting incrementally smarter (and bigger).
Need to see a doctor or receive post-hospital care at home? Your internet connect television/ip phone allows this to happen in your home. You will be able to plug your auxiliary medical kit into the usb slot and your practitioner will see your vital signs directly.
It's Jetsons but sadly without the flying car.
The television has become the focal point of media in the home. Making it the communication device as well is a very simple step in the digital age.
that netflix-streaming laptop has a camera and mic too. throw in a coupon, offer a free "app" or "show" or something to get their attention. if all else fails just do it anyway. we all know the repercussions for a major multinational conglomerate violating your personal privacy basically amount to a dog and pony show anyhow.
Good people go to bed earlier.
Besides it's not like these companies have all of the staff and resources necessary to watch and monitor the thousands to millions of TV users all at once.
You're probably right. I mean, it's not as if clandestine government agencies are building huge data warehouses or anything, right?
OK, so maybe they are; but hey, the top clandestine government agent promises he's not spying on you, and what possible reason is there to not believe every word the country's top spy-master says?
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
I mean really, who actually needs an Internet-connected TV?
Me. I have a Sony IP TV with Netflix, Hulu, Vudu, Crackle and a host of other apps. I pretty much only use the Netflix app, but I use it a lot. It saves me the time and heat/expense/hassle of having to turn on my PS3. I just wish I could get HBO Go on it.... hmm.. maybe that's available on the PS3.
Ceci n'est pas un sig.
problem solved. A John Tesh or Yonni CD is an acceptable substitutes.
There is no right to feel safe thru security vaudeville at the expense of everyone's freedom, privacy and tax money.
Yeah, who needs oversight committees for corporations. They never do anything wrong, trust the free market, because you can always buy a TV from a manufacturer who DOESN'T do this, until they all do it because there's so much profit to be made by selling the data. Of course I suppose the free market is still at work here, because people could decide between NOT watching spy-TV or watching it and giving up their privacy, TV isn't a constitutional RIGHT. Hmm... I appear to have confused myself.
https://www.accountkiller.com/removal-requested
except that i can watch tv without xbox or a web cam, and i can play video games without a kinect. if i have a kinect, i can unplug just it from the xbox and still use the xbox to watch tv. xbox is also more forthcoming about how kinect data is used.
insensitive clod overlords obligatory xkcd car analogy russian reversals whoosh pedant fanbois ftfy in 3...2...1..PROFIT
Besides it's not like these companies have all of the staff and resources necessary to watch and monitor the thousands to millions of TV users all at once.
Erm... why do people always assume that I only care about myself? I care if anyone is being watched or spied on, no matter they're being spied on by.
Boy, you are retarded. How about getting a life?
At least HAL showed a red light.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
Agree, but disagree.
I think it's another attempt to return Televisions to the actual focal point of the living room, not just an accessory to something else. (e.g., Means of displaying a game system, bluray, media player) The TV isn't going to be the wall screen appliance, it's just going to take on a lot of the social features that companies wish TVs could do in the past.
I wonder if they're thinking of facial recognition as a new means of check ins for things. Who needs Nielsen when Samsung can not only see who's watching what, but determine if they are actively watching it? Think about the fine tuning you can do with TV advertisements if you know who is watching and when. Or a Facebook integration that checks in when you start watching a show.
I'm not saying these are things I desire, but I'm sure it's what they're imagining.
Interesting, I use a low end cell phone with no "smart" features, or a camera. Naturally it has a mic, it is a phone.
My computer has no webcam installed, my notebook has a yellow stickie label over the camera.
To deal with snooping on my web search history I have a perl script that does an lpw get on random words from the dictionary and clicks a random number of links randomly spaced apart. This generates search noise.
-nB
whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
Again, is that somehow different than the XBOX?
I think it would be preferable if they were competing with NSA/CIA/DHS/etc... at least then whatever methods they (Samsung, et al) used to spy on you wouldn't be as useful to the former groups.
Given most "Smart" TV's have WiFi and/or Bluetooth, it's like Google LivingRoomView, BedroomView, ShitterView... just drive around with the right transceivers, SWAT will probably have access too.
If this thing videos some teenagers screwing, will employees of the company be prosecuted under child porn laws? Will the teenagers be arrested for making child porn?
Hey Anonymous Coward - once they invent some kind of "wave" that travels "wirelessly" through the air and transmits information... Then I bet you'll really be embarrassed! Think about it - we could possibly receive information WITHOUT A WIRE. I'm going to call it.. the radio.
-Clio
Karma: Bad (mostly from not giving a fuck)
Blog: http://clintjcl.wordpress.com
yep, nothing to see at all
Just figure out what the gestures and sounds to avoid are when you first plug it in.
It's nothing that hasn't been done before.
An always on camera in your living room that records everything send the stream to samsung has been done before?
When? Where?
If you're so afraid about TVs becoming more advanced, then why not be so scared about cell phones,
I vaguely recall NSA wiretapping our phone calls was something of an issue for a lot of people...
game consoles, iPods and the like?
Because the game consoles and ipods:
a) have indicators when they are recording
b) don't stream that data back to the mothership
Sure they have the -potential- too, but the difference here is that samsung actually -is- streaming the data out.
Besides it's not like these companies have all of the staff and resources necessary to watch and monitor the thousands to millions of TV users all at once.
All it takes is one creep set-hopping from living room to living room...
They don't need to be everywhere at once to be beyond creepy.
then why not be so scared about cell phones
Don't own one.
game consoles
Mine are modded and firewalled.
iPods
Rockbox on a Sansa.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Isn't it a little ironic posting as an AC, but asserting privacy has no value and that it should be given up for better lousy TV? That is truly redonk.
Normal webcams have an LED or something similar that turns on when the camera is active. This does not.
Link it to chat roulette?
As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a reference to Godwin's Law approaches 1
Or somehow different than your microphone and webcam featured laptop? iPad anyone? Oh that's right, whenever an App has access to your cam a little light blinks to let you know.
Whew. Glad that's settled.
Chances are, this lengthy, nonsensical rant was written by one of the following:
1) Someone who works in an industry which would benefit greatly from being able to spy on people in their homes, or
2) Some troll who obviously watches entirely too much television.
One has to wonder how well the leash fits, and whether or not this mongrel is aware they're wearing one.
Now, sit, Ubu, sit... Good boy.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
Nothing a roll of duct tape couldn't fix.... or a soldering iron.
Duct tape over the camera and solder the output lines for a cassette deck... err mp3 player... to the mice in on the tv... play porn music on a loop...
A related sci-fi book: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Light_of_Other_Days "The Light of Other Days is a 2000 science fiction novel written by Stephen Baxter based on a synopsis by Arthur C. Clarke, which explores the development of wormhole technology to the point where information can be passed instantaneously between points in the space-time continuum. ... The novel examines the philosophical issues that arise from the world's population (increasingly suffering from ecological and political disturbances) being aware that they could be under constant observation by anyone, or that they could observe anyone without their knowledge. ..."
There are a couple other similar sci-fi stories as well, including one about "Slow Glass" by Bob Shaw with the same name as that novel.
http://strick.net/blog/041103.html
And one about a similar time viewer (I forget the name).
A good thing to keep in mind is, just because we can do something, does not mean we should.
http://lostechies.com/derickbailey/2009/02/11/solid-development-principles-in-motivational-pictures/
http://lostechies.com/derickbailey/files/2011/03/SingleResponsibilityPrinciple2_71060858.jpg
What kind of word do we want to live in, and what kind of world do we want for our children, and children's children, and so on, for seven or more generations?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_generation_sustainability
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
Doubleplus Ungood.
just so you know: know one gives a damn about you.
Also, a perl script like that would be trivial to filter.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
But you only can decide to not buy it because of the problem if you are aware of the problem.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
I wonder how much they pay people to install these things? I would be willing to put one in a closet or some empty, unused room if they paid me well enough for it. :-|
9/11 Eyewitnesses to Explosive WTC Demolition 1 of 2
I thought you were buying this thing.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
But are you sure that LED is not controlled by software (drivers)? Because otherwise, someone with control over the OS could disable that feature and record unannounced, while giving you a false sense of security.
Paranoia ftw.
Dilbert RSS feed
Problem solved.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
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.
Nothing a roll of duct tape couldn't fix.....
Isn't that true for most things in life?
" we are going to use this device to watch you, too bad " compared to "you can use this device for video and audio sharing with your friends" is far different.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
And when you gaze long into a TV, the TV also gazes into you.
I guess the terms of use can insight feelings of 1984 if you're pessimistic about it, and the lack of an indicator light is careless design, but the 1984 fears seem a bit hyperbolic to me. In 1984 the TVs were mandated and the government was plugged into each camera. There doesn't seem to be any malice here - I doubt Samsung has an interest in shaping the world in the form of an Orwellian nightmare. Rather, this just seems to be a cultural oversight - doing business in foreign lands leads to those and those in business love to tell anecdotes about them - Mexican Novas, Nothing Sucks Like Electrolux, etc. Whereas American engineers and marketing people would be quick to concern themselves about any parallels to Oceania because almost everyone reads 1984 in American schools and top-hat capitalists naively use it to defend their views, Korean engineers and marketing people probably didn't think about such concerns. This seems to be the way all TVs are going, and when Samsung realizes that models with indicator lights for the camera sell better they'll probably implement it (I'm sure there's no indicator light because that would have added a couple of pennies onto the cost of production or it never even crossed anyones mind as necessary, not because the evil people at Samsung want to spy on unsuspecting couch potatoes).
A much better literary analogy would be the TVs in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit-451. That's the goal of all TV and game console companies, and that's what this thing sounds like to me. Samsung doesn't want to spy on you. They just want you to sit your fat ass in front of their TV all day and buy services from them with it. Unless they have some secret contract with the NSA . . . *puts on tinfoil hat*
"From the depths of my skeptical and rationalist soul, I ask the Lord to protect me from California touchie-feeliedom."
know one gives a damn about you
He does know that one gives a damn about him. Hence the security measures.
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not entirely sure about the universe - Einstein
Works for: 1) Nagging wife 2) Hyper Kids 3) Neighbor who won't stop telling you how great Jesus is 4) Guy who keeps stealing your morning newspaper 5) Business rivals so many uses
Not to mention the contemplative souls who think it's their god given right to stop*right* at the top of the escalator, suddenly struck by a compulsive need to understand their role in the universe. Ditto for those thoughtful folks who park their carts in the middle of grocery aisle while they weigh the relative merits of "chunky soup" vs. "minestrone"
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
That won't work, because they will make possession of duct tape a felony.
A sufficiently advanced simulation is indistinguishable from reality.
Speaking of stopping at the top of escalator: http://xkcd.com/954/
If someone is passing you on the right, you are an asshole for driving in the wrong lane.
I had a neighbor who told me he didn't want an HD TV because 'they can listen to and watch you'. Now I have to go apologize for not believing him. Perhaps I'll bring an offering of tinfoil.
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.
In Soviet Russia, joke tells you!
You never expect irony, do you?
Want to be a professional wrestler? Visit www.iyfwrestling.com
@iyfwrestling
I wonder if this device was at all inspired by this story?
This was the subject of (possibly local) urban mythology several years ago, when desktop flat panels hit mainstream. It went a little like this: that the cameras were actually integrated, pixel for pixel, into the screen itself, rather like an insect compound eye. It's not too much of a stretch. <anecdote>one time I was scanning documents and forgot to load a sheet - I also forgot to close the lid. What I ended up with was a very high resolution, perfect image of the area of the textured ceiling and striplight directly above the scanner bed.</anecdote>
Operation Guillotine is in effect.
they already did. Going tooled up for a kidnapping, are you?
Operation Guillotine is in effect.
Pay per viewer is a real issue. Sports bars are supposed to purchase public performance licenses. Now the NFL can enforce that.
there's one of those warehouses being built in Nottingham. The foundations are about as far as it's got so far, but the ad board claims it will be one of the largest and most secure data centres in the Midlands.
Oh, you bet your arse it won't be a privately-run centre. You bet your arse "secure" will mean "armed".
Operation Guillotine is in effect.
I think more people ought to don IRLED hats when they go out - these handy gadgets overwhelm the sensors on CCTV cameras, rendering you electronically anonymous. Leave your cellphone home and the worst you'll get is some rentacop telling you to take your hat off - to which the reply "fuck off" is usually sufficient to stop him bugging you further.
Operation Guillotine is in effect.
um... section 71 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005:
Assistance by offender: immunity from prosecution
(1)If a specified prosecutor thinks that for the purposes of the investigation or prosecution of any offence it is appropriate to offer any person immunity from prosecution he may give the person a written notice under this subsection (an “immunity notice”).
(2)If a person is given an immunity notice, no proceedings for an offence of a description specified in the notice may be brought against that person in England and Wales or Northern Ireland except in circumstances specified in the notice.
(3)An immunity notice ceases to have effect in relation to the person to whom it is given if the person fails to comply with any conditions specified in the notice.
(4)Each of the following is a specified prosecutor—
(a)the Director of Public Prosecutions;
(b)the Director of Revenue and Customs Prosecutions;
(c)the Director of the Serious Fraud Office;
(d)the Director of Public Prosecutions for Northern Ireland;
(e)a prosecutor designated for the purposes of this section by a prosecutor mentioned in paragraphs (a) to (d).
(5)The Director of Public Prosecutions or a person designated by him under subsection (4)(e) may not give an immunity notice in relation to proceedings in Northern Ireland.
(6)The Director of Public Prosecutions for Northern Ireland or a person designated by him under subsection (4)(e) may not give an immunity notice in relation to proceedings in England and Wales.
(7)An immunity notice must not be given in relation to an offence under section 188 of the Enterprise Act 2002 (c. 40) (cartel offences).
--
So what that basically does is gives anyone who is carrying out work for a public authority, immunity from prosecution for ANYTHING except racketeering (including murder!) if they turn evidence in ANY OTHER CASE.
So, yeah, I think they covered that there, buddy. "1984" is immune from prosecution if they turn over the video intercept for the child porn offence/s, regardless of whether or not they saved a copy for the messroom or their private collection.
Operation Guillotine is in effect.
Last step: be happy.
Instructions should always end in an instruction to be happy.
Well, I might have a way, but it only works on a semi spherical planet in a vacuum.
My house is getting more and more illegal by the week.
Well, I might have a way, but it only works on a semi spherical planet in a vacuum.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I'm a pretty hairy guy, I'm getting a bit of a tummy and I watch the TV 1-2 hours each night shirtless. Poor, poor surveilance guys. :D
Buy two TV's, make them watch each other.
So why connect the TV to the internet, when we know that it can open the door to Orwellian surveillance?
Be thankful he isn't trying to compete with the NSA and CIA. If he was, the TV would listen and watch while it killed your neighbor.
Fixed that for you...
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Duct tape !
I still have a TV set made in 1985, and it works flawlessly, connected to a dvb-s and dvb-t receiver. It's big, with woodgrain and has a funky 20 W audio amplifier. It's the right TV set to watch reruns of the A Team, George & Mildred and Derrick. Why I have to buy a more complex TV set that tries to mimic a computer, with buggy software, complex menus and so on, but with puny little speakers ripped from a speakerphone?
Yes, that was my first thought too: "Can it see through tape?"
But of course the TV will be designed to not operate if the camera is obstructed. Better to just not have a TV at all.
Proverbs 21:19
Ernst & Young has developed software which identifies potential corporate criminals by inferring their mental state from their electronic communications. They are literally policing employees' thoughts: using their mental states to flag them as criminal suspects. Here's an article about it from the Economist: http://www.economist.com/node/21547833
First of all, this TV was presented in January, so this is 2 months old.
Secondly, the camera is for gesture and facial recognition, used to interact with the UI of anything that runs on the TV platform, of course including any 3rd party application(app store, hello?). Its the exact same thing as Kinect. So this is just pure tinfoilhattism.
...
Besides it's not like these companies have all of the staff and resources necessary to watch and monitor the thousands to millions of TV users all at once.
Not all at once? This is why it is no big deal?
I would think being able to monitor any of millions of people any time they liked, to whatever degree they felt the interest for, without restriction, would be sufficient to make it a big deal.
This is mostly meant for facial recognition technology, Skype, and the like.
Facial recognition = the ability of software to recognize who is in a room, and continuously report the occupants to a third party data marketer. Think all of the TVs of a major vendor doing this, everywhere.
Chill, people.
Right. Move along folks, there's nothing to see.
Second class citizen of the New Gilded Age
"I'm sorry, you cannot continue watching your regularly scheduled programming until you view the following message from our sponsors / message from our government"
How long before this is implemented? With PVR now, you can skip through ads, much to the disdain of advertisers. If you don't have that right now, at least you can change the channel or leave the room or something during a commercial. With this technology, maybe you'll be forced to actually watch the commercials now...
Global warming and other natural disasters are a direct effect of the shrinking number of pirates - Gospel of the FSM
I should have been doing this all along with laptop purchases, but I know that next time I buy a TV or laptop I will ask if it has a built in camera and if so, how do I work the lens cover.
I often don't like the choices people make, but I like the fact that people make choices. That's why I'm a conservative.
I've been saying since the mid-90s that eventually our phones, computers and televisions would merge into a single appliance. What I didn't know was what that device would be called. 16 years later, I know a little more. I know that the name will start with an "i".
this signature has been removed due to a DMCA takedown notice
i wrote this in 1998 (14 years ago), on the first page of my book, Playing for Profit (published by John Wiley & Sons).
Is the new ceiling cat.
Possible legitimate uses?
The MPAA can count the number of viewers and make sure they are all properly licensed.
The advertisers can pause the ads if you are not paying attention.
The government can check to see that there are no known bad people in the room.
The secret government program of identifying bad people can watch your facial expressions to be sure that you are not likely to be now or to become a bad person.
In short:
* It protects the economy by preventing piracy and ensuring advertisers get what they pay for.
* It protects us from bad people.
What's not to like?
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
5, AC, 5!
Upward mobility is a slippery slope - the higher you climb the more you show your ass.
Extra Cash Back:
6.) Return TV set to shop with the message "This television seems to be broken, it only plays crap!"
7.) More Profit!
--- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..
It's illegal to record someone's voice in Washington state without their previous consent. Anyone who unwillingly come into contact could bring damages and civil lawsuits against the person who owns the TV as well as any companies involved in the transfer of this data.
And what if the only way to change channels is Kinect-style hand-waving?
Or voice controlled -- "Let me watch the game, please"
--
Law of truly large numbers - almost all numbers are larger than you can imagine.