Big Brother is listening to you in your own home - and it's not who you think it is.

Smart TVs are getting smarter - and Samsung's Smart TVs are now coming with voice control. Which is brilliant. Technology is brilliant.

But they've got themselves in a bit of hot water with their Privacy Policy.

Basically, it says that when the TV is listening to you, it sends the data to a third party for speech-to-text translation. And it also warns 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.

"Please be aware 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."

Now compare that with this extract from George Orwell's 1984 (the book that gave birth to the term 'Big Brother', for the non-readers amongst you):

"Behind Winston's back the voice from the telescreen was still babbling away about pig-iron and the overfulfilment of the Ninth Three-Year Plan. The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it, moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard. There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live -- did live, from habit that became instinct -- in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized."

Eerily similar?

Here's a link to the news article:

http://gizmodo.com/samsungs-smart-tv-privacy-policy-raises-accusations-of-1684534051

NOTE: No, I don't think Samsung is Big Brother

A fascinating parallel indeed. I suppose many of us considered the government might be out to play the role of big brother, and overlooked the potential for big business to be the equivalent voyeur.

Orwell's vision was simply amazing. Not only in this case, but also in every detail he described about how the totalitarian societies will develop.

Timing was bad for him. With his creative vision he would have been millionare nowadays.

yea, its crazy. however, im no longer surprised anymore. and yes it is big business who has more information on us than ever. and you know the governments are in every sms and email and whatever else.

if i didnt make my money online i would be tempted to go off the grid and live in a cabin in the woods.

I think you can switch off that feature, i read somewhere. Using voice commands seems like a bad idea nowadays anyways.

refexpert said:

if i didnt make my money online i would be tempted to go off the grid and live in a cabin in the woods.

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The woods are the worst place to go off grid!

Woods are full of trees. Trees are full of leaves. Leaves are photosynthetic.

Photo Synth E.T. I see

The woods are where the aliens not only watch you, but create all the photographs of you.

refexpert said:

a cabin in the woods.

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Just by that name I can tell something bad would happen. And also because it's a movie.

you know the worlds gone mad when people are being told to be careful what they say in front of their tv.

ive got one of these samsung tvs. Turned voice control off within a week of buying as its crap and a gimmick.

Im off to see if i can proxy it through wireshark or something. Curious is the stuff it sends even encrpted as I know a lot of the wifi keys around here and im a nosey bugger.

Well, while our information is getting collected via "smart" technology or social networking sites, at least we can drink lithium laced water and eat GMO food while businesses insert microchips into us.

At the end of the day, life is short and we all will die (unless scientists can decode the genes for longer life and everlasting youth/beauty...than only the top 1% will live long and prosper).

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/trial-over-lithium-in-water-link-to-suicides.24603145

http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/swedish-company-offers-employees-implantable-chips-article-1.2104851

Ok, taking off the tinfoil hat and stepping away from whatever it is the guy next to me is smoking. Going back to the real world and making money.

Just turn off that feature.

JamesHere said:

Just turn off that feature.

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That doesn't mean that they are not recording your voice low-profile

Fuck..

How can you be sure turning off the feature will still not get activated with "sensitive words" get spoken?

I'm a technology lover and I know the dangers of it. My friend is working in my country IT department and did tell me, even if your phone if turned off and even if you took out the battery they can still locate your phone or have the possibility to record audio.
Because every phone has CMOS battery(second small battery) and your phone is never turned off actually.

wizard04 said:

How can you be sure turning off the feature will still not get activated with "sensitive words" get spoken?

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Just nail it to the wall thru the microphone...

Kill a few corporate executives every time they output a product like this, and they'll soon learn what's what.

Orwell was born into a wealthy family, educated with aristocracy at Eton and yet was drawn to the cause of the common man and spent a good period of his life living like they lived, see The road to Wigan pier,Down and out in Paris and London. Thankfully he was one of a breed thats getting rarer that could care less about money.

maecenas23 said:

Orwell's vision was simply amazing. Not only in this case, but also in every detail he described about how the totalitarian societies will develop.

Timing was bad for him. With his creative vision he would have been millionare nowadays.

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Saw it today as well, quickly disabled voice recognition in the settings. )

Believe it or not I don't own a TV. There are 24 hours in a day. I spend time with my son and wife. That's not to say when I'm visiting someone I won't watch a show, hell I see kids being raised by a TV, iPad, all that electronic stuff. Instead of playing and social activities. I'd rather give my kid the attention he needs rather then to sit around and watch TV. My wife and I do out to movies but we refuse to have TV in our house and pay a cable bill for something that is a time waster.

How is this any different than your cell phone? Sony says they only listen to your voice when you have the voice control feature turned on, which is the exact same way a smartphone works. It listens to your voice whenever you are using it, but [allegedly] isn't listening to you when you aren't using the feature.

It is definitely something to be aware of, but if you are worried about companies spying on your conversations I'd be far more worried about your smartphone which many people carry around in their pocket everywhere they go than I would be about my tv.

I completeley agree with this, but I guess we need to take things as they are since this is the era we live in.

artificial_genius said:

How is this any different than your cell phone? Sony says they only listen to your voice when you have the voice control feature turned on, which is the exact same way a smartphone works. It listens to your voice whenever you are using it, but [allegedly] isn't listening to you when you aren't using the feature.

It is definitely something to be aware of, but if you are worried about companies spying on your conversations I'd be far more worried about your smartphone which many people carry around in their pocket everywhere they go than I would be about my tv.

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