Not content to stop there, Samsung has added a location tracking app to its TVs that will allow you – and them – to keep track of other people’s real-time locations. They make it easy for you to expose your friends and family to their tracking: Simply type in the person’s phone number, and they will receive a text they can use to add themselves to your group. Perhaps your mom is happy for you to see what route she’s taking to get to your house, but it’s important to note that once someone is added, everyone else in the group can also see where they are in real time using any type of screen equipped with the Glympse app.
Huge privacy concerns
If this makes you a bit uneasy, join the club. While Samsung might have done this with the best of intentions, there are so many ways that this can backfire. Perhaps for some reason you really do trust Samsung to only share your real-time movements with the people you authorize, but once you get where you’re going and turn your device off, what happens to the data they collected?
Samsung has been making headlines for years over privacy concerns connected with their smart TVs. In 2015, they warned owners that the conversations they have while sitting near the TVs can be overheard. The privacy policy, which few users actually bother to read in its entirety, states: "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." Given the fact that such TVs are often placed in living rooms, bedrooms, and conference rooms, all manner of sensitive personal and business information could be floating out there just waiting for anyone to tap into.
While the firm said that it does not sell the information and operates within privacy laws, it wasn’t as forthcoming about whether it keeps the data. Just because Samsung might not use the data for untoward purposes, however, does not mean that hackers can’t and won’t try to gain access to this treasure trove of sensitive information.
Moreover, it was recently revealed by Wikileaks that the CIA’s Embedded Devices Branch can make Samsung smart TVs appear to be off while operating them as a bug that records the conversations taking place in the room and sends them to CIA servers.
Improving family communications?
Another troubling aspect of this story is the fact that a Samsung exec stated that the TV is a hub for family communications. Given the disturbing fact that American adults watch an average of five hours and four minutes of TV per day, this might be a convenient way to reach them, but is it really so hard to pick up the phone and call someone to find out what time they are coming over? Now no one needs to talk to one another anymore. They just drive home and join the rest of the family on the sofa in front of the TV, and no one has to interact with each other. Are we sure this is really improving family communications?
Samsung also boasts that this can help you keep track of your pizza delivery guy so you don’t have to burn any extra calories getting up and looking out the window. What does it say about our society that this is something we value?
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