New Samsung smart TVs will soon ship with a built-in app dedicated to privacy control.
In addition to unveiling new devices, Samsung used the CES show this week to introduce new software as well, and one of the most important releases concerns a privacy app aimed at the company’s smart TVs, reads a new report from Engadget.
Called Privacy Choices, the new app is specifically supposed to put users in control of their data, allowing them to see what information is collected and easily opt-out if they want.
While it still isn’t clear what exactly the app will do as it wasn’t available on the demonstration TVs at CES, it’s certainly a plus to see some extra privacy visibility for products that some might otherwise not realize could potentially track data.
Back in 2015, the South Korean company was accused of using voice recognition hardware on its smart TVs to monitor living room conversations.
In an updated version of the privacy policy, Samsung explained that some so-called “interactive voice commands” may indeed be transmitted to third-party service providers, along with other information such as device identifiers.
“Samsung may collect and your device may capture voice commands and associated texts so that we can provide you with Voice Recognition features and evaluate and improve the features,” the South Korean company explained. “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.”
