Samsungs "Smart" HDTVs scam

December 06, 2017  HDTV

My last Samsung product

I used to think highly of Samsung. Then, in late 2017, about thirty days after purchasing a brand new 65” Samsung “smart” 4K UHD HDTV, I had a big reality check. Now I feel compelled to tell every unsuspecting consumer about the abhorring company that Samsung has become.

Samsung wants us to purchase and install their “smart” televisions, connect them to the Internet, create a Samsung account in order to utilize their “services”, and hopefully never realize that:

1. Their “smart” televisions are spying on everything we watch, and are uploading this information in real time over our internet connections. In addition to OTA (over the air) television and cable channels, the spying includes content from devices that are connected via HDMI, like DVD players, gaming consoles, and even streaming. From Samsung’s “Viewing Information Services” disclaimer: “Your Smart TV transfers video snippets or TV tuner information in order to determine the programs watched.” Samsung believe that spying on us is their right.
2. Samsung also believe that it is their right to display ads on the televisions that they have sold to us, as they don’t let us opt out of the ads either. In fact, they’ve gone as far as making sure that ads don’t show up before it’s too late to return their products. The ads start appearing after a month or so.

To recap: Samsung first gets paid by selling us a TV at a retail price - at this point, most of us believe that we own what we have purchased. Behind our backs, they start spying on us, and uploading information on everything we watch, when, and for how long, over our internet connections, and selling it to 3rd parties. Finally (so far), they start pushing ads on the TV screens which they also don’t own anymore, and charging 3rd parties for it. Unfortunately, companies these days employ such douchebags, and in Samsung’s case, they even gloat about these “achievements”: Samsung Ads

Can Samsung ads and spying be stopped?

Technically, it is possible to limit and even completely prevent Samsung from using your home internet connection, but doing so will cripple the functionality of the TV.

If you have a Samsung television (or any Samsung product), the best way to protect yourself is to disconnect it from the internet, and use some other streaming device instead (Apple TV doesn’t display ads, Amazon and Roku do)

The official BBB response from Samsung

Hello,

We received your complaint that was sent to the Better Business Bureau at the CEO’s office of Samsung Electronics. We are sorry to hear that you are experiencing issues with your Samsung product. Samsung believes in building quality products and we apologize all of your expectations of us have not been met. We value our relationship and are committed to providing the highest level of service simply because our customers deserve it. The feedback you provided is vital to Samsung and our commitment and dedication to our products and services. We will utilize your feedback to consider possible changes and enhancement to our current policies and procedures.

When setting up your television you agree to a series of terms and conditions in order to utilize the product, in these terms and conditions you are agreeing to allow Samsung and its affiliates to provide select advertisements onto your product. Unfortunately there is no way for the consumer to opt out of these advertisements as they are built into our platform. As far as your concern regarding the preinstalled applications being unable to be removed, I do understand your frustration regarding this issue but much like cell phones our televisions come installed with a select variety of applications that many of our customers have found useful. This is an industry standard that has been utilized by multiple different brands, these applications are non-removable by our consumers as they too are built into our user interface.

If you have any further questions regarding this please feel free to contact me.

Respectfully, Amber H.

Amber Harris | Office of the President Snaecr_ag18@sea.samsung.com / Snaecr_ag18@partner.sea.samsung.com

A few more things to know

ACR

Samsung uses a form of ACR (Automatic Content Recognition) as most “smart” TVs do. The entire industry wants ACR, because by spying on what we watch, when, for how long, etc. allegedly, they can better plan, execute, and monetize… In some idillic and naive sense, this could be great, just like nuclear power could be great, but history has shown that people and corporations cannot be trusted with power. Despite the inoffensive acronym, ACR stands for SPAYING on us full time, in our homes, and using the internet connection and bandwidth that we're paying for to transfer information wherever they want.

From Samsung’s “Viewing Information Services” disclaimer: “Your Smart TV transfers video snippets or TV tuner information in order to determine the programs watched.”

Samsung will also say that we can select which services we want to use, vaguely implying that we are in control over what’s taking place. But, I haven’t accepted any of their terms, and my Samsung TV keeps reaching out to dozens of external websites, including their own ACR. You can read more about ACR and Samsung here

The 2018 lineup of Samsung products is even more aggressive at spying and advertising.

How to fight back

There actually is plenty that we can do:

1. Disconnect Samsung products from the Internet. All of Samsung’s connected products are spying on us full time - they actually boast about the cross-media/device tracking abilities. If you have a Samsung phone, you won’t be able to do much about their spying on you, other than selling the phone. Read what Samsung says about it.
2. Stop or avoid buying Samsung products - there are plenty of choices out there for any one product that Samsung makes, especially phones, tablets, and televisions.
3. Tell everyone about Samsung’s spying and advertising practices: Samsung not telling anyone, waiting 30 days before displaying ads (so it’s too late to return their products), not letting users opt out, spying in real time, and even uploading video snippets over our networks in order to figure out what we’re watching.
4. Install Pi hole on your home network. If you’re not tech savvy, find someone who can setup a Raspberry PI with Pi hole on your home network, and just about all ads will be gone from all the devices on your home network.
5. Avoid doing business with companies that show up in Samsung’s ads.
6. File a claim with the Better Business Bureau.
7. File a claim with your local small claims court, requesting payment from Samsung for using your property/TV and Internet connection to send data to themselves and profit from it. In California, you can sue them for up to $10,000 per year.