As smart TVs become more ubiquitous in homes around the country, the technology behind what makes them “smart” is coming under greater scrutiny because of privacy concerns.
Recent reports that Samsung Smart TVs collect information from their voice-recognition software and pass that information along to third parties has led to an investigation of Samsung and LG by Senator Al Franken (D-Minn.). Early in February, Franken sent letters to the CEO of Samsung North America and the President of LG asking if the information being collected is necessary for the operation of the voice-recognition features.
“If such communications are unnecessarily captured along with voice commands, is it possible to extract that data before transmission to a third party?” Franken wrote.
Although Franken easily won his re-election bid in November, the Senator is still pushing forward on the issues that are important to him. He is a memeber of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s privacy, technology and the law subcommittee and has been a crusader for consumer privacy rights in electronic media for some time. He is also a big proponent of invention ideas fuelling the economy.
Prior to the Samsung and LG issue, Franken has pushed for laws curtailing “stalker apps,” fought against the merger of Comcast and Time Warner Cable and expressed his concern about facial recognition software features in Google Glass. His commitment to the rights of consumers to privacy is long and visible.
After the mid-term losses suffered by the Democrats, Franken is emerging as a liberal with a message. Instead of distancing himself from the president’s policies, he embraced them and Minnesota voters rewarded his loyalty by sending him back to Washington for another six years.
In a Republican-controlled Senate, though, Franken has to work hard to be visible. A member of four committees, Franken is the ranking member of just one. His work on that sub-committee has been exemplary.
“I decided to use my spot on this Committee to ask the common sense questions that regular Minnesotans would ask and ensure that someone was looking out for how these issues affect consumers, small businesses, and individuals' civil rights,” Franken wrote on his committee assignment web page.
Samsung has responded to Franken’s requests and stated in an email that it “supports Senator Franken's commitment to consumer privacy and we appreciate the opportunity to respond to his inquiries regarding the voice recognition feature on our Smart TVs.”
