TL;DR
- A researcher claims Samsung TVs without built-in microphones may access microphones in connected soundbars and Bluetooth devices, but no independent evidence proves this.
- The researcher also alleges Samsung TVs collect audio events, track viewing habits, and may continue sending ACR telemetry even when the feature is disabled.
- Samsung has faced previous privacy scrutiny, including a Texas ACR settlement and lawsuits over data collection.
Smart TVs have raised privacy concerns for years, especially over how much information they collect about what we watch. Now, a reverse engineer has made some troubling allegations about Samsung’s smart TVs, including one suggesting that models without built-in microphones could potentially use microphones in connected devices to listen to their surroundings.
The researcher, who goes by log4j on X, claims Samsung TVs can search for microphones in connected soundbars and Bluetooth devices and use them to collect audio, which is allegedly reported back to Samsung. However, the researcher hasn’t publicly demonstrated that Samsung TVs record audio through these external microphones or transmit it without users’ knowledge.
