Too smart by half, those Samsung SmartTVs. The idea that as you snuggle up on the sofa and whisper sweet nothings to your loved one every word is transmitted by your TV to a remote server to be deconstructed for signs of commands to change channel is deeply creepy.
But then we live in an age when ubiquitous CCTVs – Britain has one for every 11 people – watch and record our every move in the street and shops on behalf of the state; notionally to protect us. Where our every twitch and tweet online is recorded and tracked by giant corporations to better understand our likes and dislikes. The line goes: “To serve our needs better.”
And now, increasingly, we have the technical means and so we monitor and chronicle ourselves, our heartrates and walking habits, locate ourselves with GPS, and track our environment, our homes, our viewing habits, while our digital diaries instruct us when to wake up, who to meet ...
We live in a surveillance society – Big Brother is here – and every day we voluntarily collude in surrendering some new corner of our privacy – always, we are told, in our own best interest.
So why not to the TV? “Please be aware,” the Samsung privacy policy reads, “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.” Your voluntary use, of course. And, the company insists, it does not retain voice data or sell the audio being captured. Not yet, anyway, as it has presumably not yet found a way to “monetise” it.
Note yet, but Samsung, Microsoft, Intel and Google have all started to research the television that watches you and in 2012, Verizon sought to patent a media console that could detect who was doing what in a room, and target advertisements accordingly. So, as the London Independent put it, "a couple who were cuddling could be shown 'a commercial for a romantic getaway vacation, a commercial for contraceptives' and so on.
Just can’t wait! But then the gremlins watching this author online already know he’s lying to you.