It is not only the walls that supposedly have ears-- Samsung SmartTVs might be spying on their owners, sending recordings of "voice commands and associated texts" to the S. Korean company and third party associates.

"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 through your use of voice recognition," the Samsung privacy policy reads, a statement that instantly brings to mind George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. Eerily the classic dystopian novel features "telescreens," propaganda-broadcasting displays that also act as surveillance devices. Sort of like Smart TVs, no?

“It looks like they are using a third-party service to convert speech to text, so that’s most of what is being disclosed here,” the Electronic Frontier Foundation tells the Daily Beast. “If I were the customer, I might like to know who that third party was, and I’d definitely like to know whether my words were being transmitted in a secure form.”

In turn Samsung insists all Smart TVs feature "industry-standard" security, such as data encryption, to prevent unauthorised data collection or use. Then again, there is a simple means one can avoid such risks all together-- by disconnecting the TVs from the internet. Which might be for the best…

Go Samsung SmartTV Privacy Policy

Go Your Samsung SmartTV is Spying on You, Basically (The Daily Beast)