Watch out: Your TV is listening to you

Samsung has become the latest technology company to face a backlash for how data is collected from users, after it said its televisions can transmit user data to third-parties.

The world’s biggest maker of TVs said its web-connected sets can collect private conversations when users activate its voice-recognition function. Consumers can turn the function on or off at any time, the Suwon, South Korea-based company said in an e-mailed statement.

The data collection practices on Samsung's TVs are contained in the user agreements, the so-called click-to-agree screen found during the setup of most modern technology. Google, LinkedIn and Yahoo have been sued by customers over how they collect data while Apple Inc. last year updated privacy policies to reassure users that their data is safe.

“If you’re watching TV, TV should not be watching you back,” Julia Horwitz, a consumer protection counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, told Bloomberg Television. “Consumers, like the company, don’t know what will happen after the data is collected.”

Samsung shares fell as much as 1.1 per cent to 1.38 million won in Seoul. They were down 0.4 per cent as of 11:26 a.m.

When a user gives a voice command to a Web-connected TV, the data is sent to a server to search for the requested content, Samsung said. In a supplemental TV note posted on its website, the company said it might still collect information to evaluate the performance of the feature.

Samsung released a challenger to Google’s Android software for big-screen TVs last month as the South Korean company tries to capitalise on the burgeoning interest in smart-home technology. All of its smart TVs this year will use its Tizen operating system as the company pushes to have more of its appliances connected to the Web.

Bloomberg