Samsung TV too smart?

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This article was published 11/2/2015 (1842 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SEOUL, South Korea — Watch what you say in your living room. Samsung's smart TV could be listening. And sharing.

Voice-recognition technology in the South Korean company's Internet-connected TVs captures and transmits nearby conversations.

The potential for TVs to eavesdrop is revealed in Samsung's smart-TV privacy policy available on its website.

"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," the policy said.

For the voice-command feature to work, the TV listens for speech that is translated by third-party software into text and sent back to the TV as a command. Samsung declined to name the software company.

Samsung said data collection is aimed at improving TV performance, but users can disable it.

In a statement, the company said it takes consumer privacy "very seriously."

"We employ industry-standard security safeguards and practices, including data encryption, to secure consumers' personal information and prevent unauthorized collection or use."

— The Associated Press