Wow, this is getting absurd. Samsung has been caught telling a lie twice in a row. After concerns that its TVs were listening, Samsung told everyone that voice data was encrypted. It was not. But but, it is only our old TVs - our new Smart TVs use encryption, Samsung told us. True? No...
Still unencrypted on latest TVs
By now, it looks like Samsung is trying to destroy its own brand on purpose. Let us establish a time line because this might be confusing if you have not been with us from the beginning.
The world freaked out after someone found a reference in Samsung’s privacy policy that said “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.”
Samsung assured everyone that it only sent voice data once you had pressed a button on the remote. This was true. But Samsung also told everyone that it was using "industry-standard security", including data encryption to transmit your recorded voice data.
A security expert was quick to test that claim and found that a ES8000 model (a 2012 Samsung TV) did in fact not encrypt voice data at all.
Samsung responded by saying; "Samsung takes consumer privacy very seriously and our products are designed with privacy in mind. Our latest smart TV models are equipped with data encryption and a software update will soon be available for download on other models,"
We asked Samsung to clarify which models, but Samsung refused to answer.
So, what to do? David Lodge, the person who exposed Samsung’s first lie, bought a brand-new Samsung TV (a 55HU7500). This is the most recent Samsung TV on the market. Guess what? Still unencrypted.
At this point, Samsung needs to stop filling journalists with lies. Samsung needs to take this seriously, despite its lack of respect for privacy in people’s homes.
Let us see what Samsung’s bullshit machine comes up with next.
- Source: David Lodge
