Is your Samsung TV listening to you?

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Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › Is your Samsung TV listening to you?

Rikkitic

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#208992 8-Mar-2017 09:46

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Wikileaks has just published a trove of CIA documents revealing that organisation's cyber-tricks and hacking techniques. There is a lot to go through, but one titbit that stands out is the 'Weeping Angel' project that uses Samsung smart TVs as remotely-controlled listening devices even when they are supposed to be turned off, along with 'iPhones, iPads and Android devices'. Another is the leaking of these CIA toys to the bad guys, meaning not only do you not have any secrets from the USA, you do not have any secrets from anybody. Welcome to the fishbowl.

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BTR

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#1733058 8-Mar-2017 14:34

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Think I will be sticking to my non smart 6+ years old Sony Bravia for a few more years....

Personally I would like to see Samsung sue the US Govt for hacking into its products and breaching their terms in conditions. If not Samsung then governments start making a stand against the US.

Rickles

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#1733106 8-Mar-2017 15:30

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>Is your Samsung TV listening to you? <

No, but I'm damn sure my microwave is using my credit card!

scuwp

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#1733127 8-Mar-2017 16:04

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I am in the camp that I am willing to lose a bit of privacy for the sake of security. If they want to listen to my boring family conversations, go for it.

Lazy is such an ugly word, I prefer to call it selective participation

gzt

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#1733136 8-Mar-2017 16:16

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Rikkitic: leaking of these CIA toys to the bad guys, meaning not only do you not have any secrets from the USA, you do not have any secrets from anybody. Welcome to the fishbowl.

It doesn't mean that. It means that many people will look at the vulnerabilities and understand the issues and develop detection and mitigation.

For instance, you can expect AV/security vendors to develop and include detection for some of these.

In addition, some of these vulnerabilities will already be well known issues and already used by bad people.

Samsung's tv privacy policy from a few years ago does not inspire any confidence: "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".

Having said all that, I'm sure there will be new stuff in there and it will be interesting to see what people like Bruce Schneier come up with in the next few days.

Rikkitic

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#1733141 8-Mar-2017 16:20

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scuwp: I am in the camp that I am willing to lose a bit of privacy for the sake of security. If they want to listen to my boring family conversations, go for it.

I think it depends on what the trade-off is. The problem is you have to take their word that it is in your interest and that nothing will be used against you. Personally, I would rather take a chance on security and have my privacy. I don't want to have to watch what I am saying around my TV in my living room. That really is straight out of Orwell.

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vexxxboy

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#1733148 8-Mar-2017 16:34

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Rikkitic:

scuwp: I am in the camp that I am willing to lose a bit of privacy for the sake of security. If they want to listen to my boring family conversations, go for it.

I think it depends on what the trade-off is. The problem is you have to take their word that it is in your interest and that nothing will be used against you. Personally, I would rather take a chance on security and have my privacy. I don't want to have to watch what I am saying around my TV in my living room. That really is straight out of Orwell.

then dont get a smart TV

Common sense is not as common as you think.

Rikkitic

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#1733158 8-Mar-2017 17:06

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Actually I have one but only because the 'smart' functions I didn't want came with other things I did want. TV smart functions are rubbish anyway and it is not connected to the network. I only use it as a dumb monitor with other things that actually are smart and can be controlled. Whether the CIA has also hacked those or not I do not know.

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Technofreak

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#1733196 8-Mar-2017 18:10

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There two comments that come to mind.

One that people are surprised the CIA (or anyone else) are doing this. I'd be surprised if they weren't.

Two, that we only seem to hear from Wikileaks about US based organisations doing this sort of thing. It's pretty obvious they're not the only country up to these tricks. I'll bet the Russians and others like China are doing the same thing. Why don't we hear about them from Wikileaks? Does one of these countries control Wikileaks?

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wally22

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#1733201 8-Mar-2017 18:17

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Technofreak: There two comments that come to mind.

One that people are surprised the CIA (or anyone else) are doing this. I'd be surprised if they weren't.

Two, that we only seem to hear from Wikileaks about US based organisations doing this sort of thing. It's pretty obvious they're not the only country up to these tricks. I'll bet the Russians and others like China are doing the same thing. Why don't we hear about them from Wikileaks? Does one of these countries control Wikileaks?

Probably because any leakers are shot before they succeed in spilling anything!

Rikkitic

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#1733203 8-Mar-2017 18:18

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1. Not surprised, just a bit sad that they feel the need.

2. Maybe the US just produces bigger and better leakers. I'm sure other countries are up to the same kinds of things and if they came out they would also be published, if not by Wikileaks then by someone. The problem with America is that it has always loudly claimed the high ground, so many find it more disturbing when that turns out not to be so.

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richms

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#1733204 8-Mar-2017 18:24

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If samsung were listening they would know that I think the userinterface and picture quality is crap with how much I swear at it.

"Oh come on, how can you make the text _THAT_ blurry"

"Where the F..... is this judder coming from?!"

"Stop turning the F...... backlight down because its a dark scene you piece of S......"

Richard rich.ms

k1w1k1d

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#1733223 8-Mar-2017 19:06

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What does the Samsung TV use as a microphone to listen with?

networkn

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#1733241 8-Mar-2017 19:42

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Rikkitic:

Actually I have one but only because the 'smart' functions I didn't want came with other things I did want. TV smart functions are rubbish anyway and it is not connected to the network. I only use it as a dumb monitor with other things that actually are smart and can be controlled. Whether the CIA has also hacked those or not I do not know.

If your smart tv isn't connected to the Internet, it's not smart.

Dratsab

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#1733258 8-Mar-2017 20:00

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Rikkitic: Actually I have one but only because the 'smart' functions I didn't want came with other things I did want. TV smart functions are rubbish anyway and it is not connected to the network. I only use it as a dumb monitor with other things that actually are smart and can be controlled. Whether the CIA has also hacked those or not I do not know.

Just make sure when you're talking you have the stereo up really loud, stand really close to the person you're communicating with and talk softly. You also need to be away from the windows and have the curtains drawn just in case your voice creates vibrations on window panes which can be picked up by laser and translated back to speech by some simple software. Tinfoil hats also help! [/joke]

richms: If samsung were listening they would know that I think the userinterface and picture quality is crap with how much I swear at it.

"Oh come on, how can you make the text _THAT_ blurry"

"Where the F..... is this judder coming from?!"

"Stop turning the F...... backlight down because its a dark scene you piece of S......"

You call them swear words, I call them sentence enhancers

gzt

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#1733318 8-Mar-2017 21:13

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k1w1k1d:
What does the Samsung TV use as a microphone to listen with?

Some models with voice control. Don't know any details.

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