Spying Backlash Prompts Samsung To Update SmartTV Policy

Samsung Electronics updated the privacy policy for its SmartTV on Tuesday following consumer backlash over the company's warning that the device may be inadvertently recording their private conversations and sending it to a third-party company. The company's televisions are still listening, and Samsung is still picking up data to improve the technology, but it clarifies in an updated policy that the data is only used "to the extent necessary to provide" voice recognition. It also unveiled that the vendor on the receiving end is Nuance Communications Inc. , which converts interactive voice commands to text to determine if the dialogue is a command. Samsung also revealed that certain pre-programmed voice commands may still work even if the voice recognition feature is disabled. Shares of Nuance fell 1% to $14.12 in recent trade.