News
Careful What You Say, Your Samsung Smart TV Might Be Listening
By
Alanna Ketler
3 minute read 
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Recently Samsung made an announcement that riled up privacy protesters everywhere. They blatantly stated that their new Smart TV’s are in fact capable of listening to and recording your conversations.
These TVs have voice recognition software, but this fancy piece of technology comes at a price, Samsung warned its consumers to not have important conversations or disclose personal information in front of these new Smart TV’s because this audio can be recorded and then transmitted to unidentified third parties.
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Many people are now comparing this notion of TV’s spying on you to the popular novel titled ‘1984’ By George Orwell. In this book Orwell writes of Telescreens, which are capable of watching you, tracking you, listening to you and even speaking to you. This book hints that in the future there will be telescreens everywhere and we will be constantly watched, with no privacy. Although the year is not 1984, these TV’s came out 30 years behind schedule. Seems like Samsung is doing a great job living up to these predictions…
Left: Samsung SmartTV privacy policy, warning users not to discuss personal info in front of their TV Right: 1984 pic.twitter.com/osywjYKV3W
— Parker Higgins (@xor) February 8, 2015
This warning originally came to light because of a story done by The Daily Beast, there an excerpt from Samsung’s privacy policy was posted:
“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,”
I for one, would like to know who these third parties are? Yes they are converting our speech to text, but who is doing this and where is that information being stored?
What Does Samsung Have To Say About This?
In response to the aforementioned story written by The Daily Beast, Samsung issued this statement:
“Samsung takes consumer privacy very seriously. In all of our Smart TVs we employ industry-standard security safeguards and practices, including data encryption, to secure consumers’ personal information and prevent unauthorized collection or use, voice recognition, which allows the user to control the TV using voice commands, is a Samsung Smart TV feature, which can be activated or deactivated by the user. The TV owner can also disconnect the TV from the Wi-Fi network.”
Okay, maybe so, but isn’t the whole point of a Smart TV its ability to connect to wifi and go on the internet? Why would we want to turn off the feature that cost us an extra $200 or more? I think if it were me, I would just stick to using the good old fashioned remote. If you can’t speak freely and openly in your own living room, where else is left?
How To Turn Off Voice Recognition Feature
Luckily, there is a way to turn off this feature, you will be trading convenience for your privacy. To do this, go to the “Settings Menu” and select “Smart Features.” Scroll down to “Voice Recognition” and switch it to “Off.” While you will no longer be able to use the “Hi TV” command to activate the voice features, you can still access them by pressing the microphone button on your remote. Not so bad at all really, good thing this information came out! What other devices have been spying on us that we don’t know about? Does anyone ever read the full terms of service?
Much Love
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An uncovered Australian report performed by their Department of Defence. “Scientific Intelligence — General — Unidentified Flying Objects” is trending again. Those who have done extensive research on UFOs will find the Australian version of disclosure to be far more intellectually honest than the American version. Albeit it was conducted decades ago.
According to ex-US intelligence official Luis Elizondo, the Defense Department’s Inspector General is presently conducting three reviews. The inquiries vary from the Department of Defense’s handling of UFO claims to Elizondo’s alleged whistleblower retribution. The open IG cases are crucial to Australia’s report because they establish beyond a shadow of a doubt that the US Department of Defense is being dishonest and shady when it comes to the UFO subject. For decades, Australia has been a loyal friend of the United States. Within Australia’s boundaries, they share a military installation (Pine Gap). When a close defense ally’s intelligence agencies determined that the US was not being intellectually honest in its approach, perhaps it is reasonable to conclude that there is more to the tale than the 144 incidents studied since 2004 by the UAPTF.
The CIA became alarmed at the overloading of military communications during the mass sightings of 1952 and considered the possibility that the USSR may take advantage of such a situation.
Australian UFO study.
According to the summary, OSI, acting through the Robertson-Panel, encouraged the USAF to use Project Blue Book to publicly “debunk” UFOs. In a tragic twist of fate, when Australian authorities sought explanations from the US Air Force, the allegation was debunked. The authors of the study were depicted as conspiratorial and even crazy by the US Air Force. Ross Coulthart reported this, and it may be heard in a recent Project Unity interview. Courthart is an award-winning investigative journalist who is drawn to forbidden subjects. He also stated on the same podcast that a senior US Navy official identified as Nat Kobitz told him that the US had been in the midst of reverse-engineering numerous non-human craft. According to his obituary, Mr. Kobitz was a former Director of Research and Development at Naval Sea Systems Command.
Continue reading the entire article at The Pulse.
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Our new course is called 'Overcoming Bias & Improving Critical Thinking.' This 5 week course is instructed by Dr. Madhava Setty & Joe Martino
If you have been wanting to build your self awareness, improve your.critical thinking, become more heart centered and be more aware of bias, this is the perfect course!
Before you begin...
Take a moment and breathe. Place your hand over your chest area, near your heart. Breathe slowly into the area for about a minute, focusing on a sense of ease entering your mind and body. Click here to learn why we suggest this.
The US recently released its highly anticipated Pentagon UAP report, but it wasn’t much more than a 9 page rundown of what has been known for decades. Regardless, for many, what was promising was that the UFO subject was being taken seriously again – and perhaps many more scientists might get involved.
For decades many have been warning about leaving UFO disclosure in the hands of a government that likes to use crisis’ or current events to expand its defense budgets. Further, why would we suddenly expect a government, who has been lying about this subject for 70 years, to suddenly come forth with the truth? What would inspire them to suddenly change their mind?
Perhaps it’s because the search for ET is an idea who’s time has truly come. We’ve reporting on this for over 13 years, and are mongst a community of researchers who have been encouraging humanity to look at the evidence for more than 70 years. It feels like an idea that human collective consciousness is more than ready to explore.
The impact the ET question has on our individual and collective worldview has the power to truly change the way we view ourselves and the meaning of life here on earth. Think of the implications answers to this question could have on how we set up and run our society as well. Technology, culture, collaboration etc – I spoke about this more in great detail in my extended interview for Greer’s. prior film Close Encounters of The Fifth Kind here.
Now, a new documentary from Dr. Steven Greer, directed by my good friend Michael Mazzola, seeks to explore what the films calls “the current government and media disinformation campaign promoting 3 big lies:”
1. We do not know what these UAPs/ UFOs are. WE DO.
2. Humans cannot make craft that can maneuver like UFOs. WE CAN and WE DO.
3. The UFOs are a threat. THEY ARE NOT.
Bold statements. Watch the film below and see what resonates most with you.
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Click below to watch a sneak peek of our brand new course!
Our new course is called 'Overcoming Bias & Improving Critical Thinking.' This 5 week course is instructed by Dr. Madhava Setty & Joe Martino
If you have been wanting to build your self awareness, improve your.critical thinking, become more heart centered and be more aware of bias, this is the perfect course!
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