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commanded to turn off again). How manyy of us will remember to keep
absolutelyy quiet while the TV is on?
We won’t, and to make matters even more disturbing, what we sayy (and
what is recorded) after the “Hi, TV” command is not encryypted. If I can get
on yyour home network, I can eavesdrop on whatever conversation yyou’re
having in yyour home while the TV is turned on. The argument in favor of
keeping the TV in listening mode is that the device needs to hear anyy
additional commands yyou might give it, such as “Volume up,” “Change the
channel,” and “Mute the sound.” That might be okayy, except the captured
voice commands go up to a satellite before theyy come back down again.
And because the entire string of data is not encryypted, I can carryy out a
man-in-the-middle attack on yyour TV, inserting myy own commands to
change yyour channel, pump up yyour volume, or simplyy turn off the TV
whenever I want.
Let’s think about that for a second. That means if yyou’re in a room with
a voice-activated TV, in the middle of a conversation with someone, and
yyou decide to turn on the TV, the stream of conversation that follows mayy
be recorded byy yyour digital TV. Moreover, that recorded conversation about
the upcoming bake sale at the elementaryy school mayy be streamed back to a
server somewhere far from yyour living room. In fact, Samsung streams that
data not onlyy to itself but also to another companyy called Nuance, a voicerecognition
software companyy. That’s two companies that have vital
information about the upcoming bake sale.
And let’s get real here: the average conversation yyou’re having in yyour
TV room probablyy isn’t about a bake sale. Mayybe yyou’re talking about
something illegal, which law enforcement might want to know about. It is
entirelyy likelyy that these companies would inform law enforcement, but if
law enforcement, for example, were alreadyy interested in yyou, then officers
might get a warrant forcing these companies to provide complete
transcripts. “Sorryy, but it was yyour smart TV that narc’d on yyou…”
Samsung has, in its defense, stated that such eavesdropping scenarios
are mentioned in the privacyy agreement that all users implicitlyy agree to
when theyy turn on the TV. But when was the last time yyou read a privacyy
agreement before turning on a device for the first time? Samsung sayys in the
near future all its TV communications will be encryypted. 10 But as of 2015,