back to article Data retention: It seems BORING ... until your TV SPIES ON YOU

If there's one thing we can thank this whole Samsung privacy brouhaha for, it's casting data retention debates in a whole new light. As readers of The Register now know, Samsung decided that the best way to process voice commands in its new smart TVs is to send them off to the cloud. Since it can't distinguish speech meant to …

  1. Ted Treen
    Big Brother

    Why pick on Oz?

    "...police all over Australia have routinely misused information to which they have access..."

    I don't think that's restricted to Oz.

    "...police all over Australia everywhere have routinely misused information to which they have access..."

    There! That's fixed it for you.

  2. Mark 85

    Not metadata....

    If your conversation (private, in-home) is being sent to Samsung (or a third-party), that's data. This does not bode well. I'm waiting for the excuse from the slurpers and their apologists that they'll only use it to keep us safe.

    I think that there will never, ever be a network connection allowed to any of my TV's.....

    1. Sebastian A

      Re: Not metadata....

      They've also admitted that they'd be compelled to hand over all data (not just metadata) in the case of a valid warrant being served. So, backward-accessible wiretapping now available in all homes, free with purchase of a corrupt judge.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "I think that there will never, ever be a network connection allowed to any of my TV's"

      * The day may come when its not in your hands. TV makers will ship TV's deliberately or 'accidentally' with rushed firmware requiring regular upgrades or crash screens if disallowed. Why?....

      * LG and Samsung want to build platforms that are direct conduits to advertisers. They intend to leverage the onboard gesture recognition, microphone and camera so that they can 'Ad-Spy' on entire families, feeding buckets of data to advertisers in real-time (usurping Google and Facebook).

      * Right now, they cant get away with this on basic LED's or Plasma's. So they are doing away with these non-Smart's (see Samsung CEO's CES remarks)...

      * Unless more of us (the market) demand basic non-Smart models, 'always on - always connected' TV's will be forced upon us passively.

      * We need an Xbox '180' style rebellion to fight this momentum....

      1. DropBear

        Re: "I think that there will never, ever be a network connection allowed to any of my TV's"

        "TV makers will ship TV's deliberately or 'accidentally' with rushed firmware requiring regular upgrades or crash screens if disallowed."

        That may or may not come to pass for the more elaborate functions (eg. "watch Netflix"), but I simply cannot imagine it happening for the bog-standard "just show me whatever is coming in through the HDMI" level functions, any time soon. And that means even if I can't find a "dumb" TV set, I should have no problem using a "smart" one for nothing else than a screen, powered by whatever _I_ choose to connect to it (like said Netflix, but on my terms)...

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Not metadata....

      Blocking connection to TV is easy. Just don't plug it in.

      Blocking connection to TV, whilst allowing services like Netflix to work, is harder. It's not as simple as just allowing access to Netflix IPs (although that would be hard enough for most people).

      My Samsung TV, for example, has a Netflix app, and it calls home to Samsung to check if that app is up to date before running it. So, I have to allow it to call Samsung. How do I know it's not also sending back a record of my last 7 days' terrestrial viewing habits at the same time?

      There is no technological solution to this. It is a question of:

      (a) trust in the vendor - that they are not doing things which are "wrong" from the user's point of view;

      (b) trust in the vendor's platform security - that it doesn't have gaping holes which allow third parties to take over the box and do nefarious things

      Unfortunately, the history of the last 10-20 years does not fill me with confidence in either of those areas.

    4. Mark 65

      Re: Not metadata....but an opportunity abounds

      I can see a market for a gateway device for the home that actively filters out any such communications. Although you can just not connect the TV to the internet you may wish to use the catchup services (although there goes more data/metadata) and such a device would sanitise the comms. Perhaps if the companies choose to https the links then a gateway that sets these IoT parasites on their own VLAN where all internet traffic in https goes through TOR. Their attitude is clearly "fuck you customer, all TVs will have this and you don't even know whether off in settings is really off anyhow".

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: "I can see a marlet for a gateway device"

        You mean like this one from Bitdefender? Could it do the trick?

        http://www.bitdefender.com/box/

    5. Jim 59

      Re: Not metadata....

      Samsung decided that the best way to process voice commands in its new smart TVs is to send them off to the cloud.

      Who's designing this stuff, Vladimir Lenin ?

      1. Oninoshiko
        Big Brother

        Re: Not metadata....

        I think the idea for the Telescreen was Orwell...

        WAR IS PEACE

        FREEDOM IS SLAVERY

        IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Opt-in or Opt-out or Locked-in

    The key is if all of this data collection can be opt-in/out. Will there ever come a time when it's illegal or impossible for me to block the connections to the Net? Heaven forbid that they ever use safety as an excuse to mandate the use of IoT data collection. For example smart smoke alarms or cooking appliances that notify when there is a fire. One thing I haven't been keeping track of (and should be) is the use of smart power meters and powerline internet back to the power company. Am I going to have to put some sort of filter between every smart device and the power plug? Will that be made illegal as well?

    Still despite my concerns the article failed to consider one thing - It's already possible for the government to find out, with some certainty, when somebody is at home. They just have to look at the overrall power usage and compare it historically. Well smart power meters would make this even easier.

    But it's still scary to think what might become excepted...

  4. Sebastian A

    WTS: 15 year old 29" CRT TV

    Watch TV without being watched. Free rabbit ears aerial.

    Starting bid, $1000. Shipping, probably as much again.

    1. VinceH

      Re: WTS: 15 year old 29" CRT TV

      "Watch TV without being watched. Free rabbit ears aerial.

      Starting bid, $1000. Shipping, probably as much again."

      You might think you're joking, but when I read this bit in the article:

      "Except, of course, that it tells anyone who's listening that you have enough money to buy a connected refrigerator,"

      My immediate thoughts were that if enough people become aware of the potential issues of all this then in time, as all of this iOUT1 stuff becomes the norm, what we might see is the complete reverse being true:

      'Except, of course, that it tells anyone who's listening that you don't have enough money to buy a refrigerator that doesn't connect.'

      1. Internet of Unwanted Things

  5. Sureo

    ....TV was switched off ....

    The TV isn't really switched off, is it?

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Before someone writes "block access to the Internet via the router" please consider...

    This is Not the answer unfortunately...

    1. Take South America. Telmex / Claro dominates (Carlos Slim's billionaire empire). Users get locked out of their router on two levels. A. The router is locked with a password that even the call-out techs don't know. B. A blocker is placed over the cable to stop users connecting their own router or inserting their own along the chain. C. Claro use WEP encryption!!!

    2. How many Friends, Family, Colleagues actually know how to do this, never mind those who actually will take the time to do it...?

    1. frank ly

      Re: Before someone writes "block access to the Internet via the router" please consider...

      "A blocker is placed over the cable to stop users connecting their own router or inserting their own along the chain."

      If an ethernet cable comes out of it, you connect that to the upstream port of your own router; surely? Or is it a very devious arrangement?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        "Or is it a very devious arrangement"

        Yeah its a sneaky double-ended arrangement. They also do surprise inspections as labor is cheap here and people often 'share wires' between apartments and homes...

        1. DropBear
          Devil

          Re: "Or is it a very devious arrangement"

          So what?!? What's preventing anyone setting up another wireless router that connects to the "official" one and creates its own, second wireless network applying a firewall to it - then you just connect everything to the second network and ignore the first?!? What some people seem to fail to realize is that once an unfiltered data pipeline is available, it's impossible to tell the user what further infrastructure it may or may not build behind it. They tried something similar looking at TTL values and your PC's "registered" MAC address trying to prevent people to connect a router instead of their PC to the incoming cable - all they achieved is that decent routes all come with MAC cloning and TTL settings built-in...

          1. Charles 9

            Re: "Or is it a very devious arrangement"

            "So what?!? What's preventing anyone setting up another wireless router that connects to the "official" one and creates its own, second wireless network applying a firewall to it - then you just connect everything to the second network and ignore the first?!?"

            Knowing the countries in question, probably availability of third-party routers. If your ONLY source of Internet equipment is the cableco cartel...

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: "Or is it a very devious arrangement"

          Sublocating/sharing a connection is another thing, while limiting what you could *after* the router (if the router is rented from the provider, it's pretty understandeable you can't put anything between the router and provider cablecan be an "unfair clause" in the ToS), within reasonable, standard, common, safe practices (applying 220V to the router ports may be not) - but I don't know enough of South America consumer rights and legal system to asses it.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    How can Samsung be so aggressive and yet so naive in this post Snowden world?

    Samsung could not possibly have missed the fallout from LG's USB spying fiasco... Yet here they are marching full steam ahead with plans to connect every TV they sell to the internet by 2017. They claim its what 'the market' wants.... But the truth is, the market accepts whatever its given and gives thanks. After ESPN and the BBC shelved 3D, who really wanted a 3D TV? Who needs Curved? Where can we even get UHD content?

    I thought Smartphone spying was bad, but this TV spying trend is much more heinous. Why? Because Hackers, Security Agencies, Police and the Rogue Elite, are going to find ways to access leaky TV data and use it against us in ways it was never intended....

    Imagine a TV in a conference room that leaks juicy corporate secrets.. Or mistrials from breach of attorney / client privilege... Or just imagine all the juicy titbits that could be gleaned from TV Tapping the homes of executives, politicians, diplomats, journalists and whistleblowers etc...

    How can Samsung be so aggressive and yet so naive in this post Snowden world? I hope other naive corporations like Target or Anthem get burned from this and fire sueballs at LG and Samsung...

    1. frank ly

      Re: How can Samsung be so aggressive and yet so naive in this post Snowden world?

      "Why? Because [Hackers,] Security Agencies, Police and the Rogue Elite, are going to find ways to access leaky TV data and use it against us in ways it was never intended...."

      You answered your own question :(

  8. Christian Berger

    There's a simple rule of thumb

    If a device runs enough unfree software so you cannot control what it's doing, do not connect it to the Internet. If you have to connect it to the Internet, make sure it's firewalled propperly so it won't be able to talk to entities you don't want it to talk to.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "make sure it's firewalled ... so it won't be able to talk to entities you don't want it to..."

      For most families, friends, and colleagues that's a technical bridge too far... Many Smart TV's are also shipped with rushed firmware. You may have no choice but to let it go online it from time to time...

      How are you going to control all that on a Firewall port basis when the TV makers may share ports for updating and spying? TV data is encrypted, it can't be easily deciphered...

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: There's a simple rule of thumb

      When a device explicitly tells you that it will send data externally, the fact that it is free or not cares little. Once the data are outside your control, you can do very little about how they are used or misused - and it doesn't matter if the software that got them is free or not. A lot of data gathering companies runs of "free" software - for them, a win-win situation, they process your data and make money on them, while saving money on software.

      If the entities gathering the data is the same that provides you the device and related services, what are you blocking? After all Google collects a lot of data simply because you are unwillingly to block Google, right? We are not speaking about devices collecting data stealthy, we're speaking about devices that are designed from ground up to gather and transmit data, and they even tell you so they'lll do. They can even show you the code - there's no secret in it - record, pack, transmit... and if then they share those informations with third parties, what could you block on your FW? Nothing.

      Anyway, any device that gets updates from the Internet from its own sources, can install something nasty (at least for you) without your knowledge, even if it's based on "free" code. Unless it displays all the source code on the screen and asks you to approve the update (compiled, of course, from the same source code), but I guess it won't be much successful but among a handful of die-hard penguins who prefer to read source code than watching a movie - not usually the best way to spend an evening with your family, friends (unless of the same penguin race), or girlfriend...

      Sure, you can block everything - as long as the device still works, once blocked. It could start complaining it can't "check for updates", and stop working....

      This issue has to be resolved outside the technical domain, it's a legal issue, what companies are authorized to collect, and how to ensure your able to opt-out, or, far better - to opt-in.

      1. Charles 9

        Re: There's a simple rule of thumb

        "This issue has to be resolved outside the technical domain, it's a legal issue, what companies are authorized to collect, and how to ensure your able to opt-out, or, far better - to opt-in."

        And unfortunately, the legal side is against us. The government want to do the Big Brother thing, and anyone who's against it never gets an honest chance to rise to power. Worse comes to worse, they could decide if they lose everyone loses...

    3. Just Enough

      Re: There's a simple rule of thumb

      Your "simple" rule relies on the end user knowing what makes software "unfree" (something I'm not clear on myself, what do you mean?) and how to use a firewall. These are not simple things.

      The vast majority of people will not know how (or want) to do either.

  9. heyrick Silver badge
    WTF?

    S Voice as well

    The Samsung Galaxy comes with S Voice, a sort of vocal control system. Could be useful but unlike the Motorola one that worked on the phone, the S Voice agreement that it shows you on first use asks you to agree to share location, voice data, contacts etc etc with Nuance (the provider) and their partners.

    No way in hell...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "agree to share location, voice data, contacts etc etc with Nuance and their partners"

      You're right, Smartphones are an even greater invasion of privacy. TV's just have the potential to be. And if you disable all the spyware on smartphones f*ck all else works except the camera.

      WTF????

    2. Dan Paul

      Re: S Voice as well @ heyrick

      That's no different than Apple's Siri, Google Voice or Windows Phone/Win10 Cortana does for Smartphones

      Not going to have much choice soon. Better get used to it.

  10. Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

    It has happened before, it will happen again.

    TV sets that are watching people? What a novel concept.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Have i missed something?

    A fridge, for example, its unlikely you will have an ethernet point in the kitchen, so it must connect wirelessly, therefore, it must be configured to connect. If i choose not to configure it, then it cant connect can it?

    Or is it like these unwanted smart meters using MESH to connect.

    Time to get the wavebubble out again!

    1. 's water music

      Re: Have i missed something?

      A fridge, for example, its unlikely you will have an ethernet point in the kitchen, so it must connect wirelessly, therefore, it must be configured to connect. If i choose not to configure it, then it cant connect can it?

      Or is it like these unwanted smart meters using MESH to connect.

      You have to get the TV to really really promise not to tell the fridge the WPA key and hope that the TV isn't as tempted by cold beer as you would be

      1. GrumpyOldMan

        Re: Have i missed something?

        Your wifi router configured for DHCP? Bet your connected fridge is too. As an uber-basic precaution I use MAC filtering, some MACs are completely blocked, some have permitted times of internet access (kid's laptops and mobes for example - 7pm-10pm weeknights) A fridge MAC would be easy enuf - but I bet they will all be on IPv6. Shame I only run IPv4.

        Wireshark is your friend!

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Have i missed something?

          "Wireshark is your friend!"

          Unless the device is secretly using an encrypted whispernet and can detect when its signal is blocked.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Have i missed something?

        If my TV, or any other device, in my cottage decides that I may want a 'cold beer' then it's going to be heavily re-programmed with a very large axe.

        Yours with a real-ale belly, a badger-snaffling beard and a strange fondness for music which requires me to stick my finger in my ear.

    2. DropBear
      Trollface

      Re: Have i missed something?

      Well why do you think I'm investing into the tin foil and the mesh wire industry?!? Great times are ahead..!

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Have i missed something?

      You may not connect it, but it could:

      a) Stop working until you connect it

      b) Work, but it keep on displayin an error message because it is not connected. You can ignore it, but then you will miss any other errore message because of it - while your wife/girlfriend/etc, will tell keep on asking you why you don't connect that damned device and get rid of the message

      c) Attempt to crack your WEP password (and even some naive WPA ones), after all being a fridge is a pretty boring job, and once you scan all those RFIDs that get in and out when the door is open, and run the compressor once in a while, your CPU has a lot of cycles free....

      1. Kiwi
        Holmes

        Re: Have i missed something?

        Very late to the party.. Again.. But..

        b) Work, but it keep on displayin an error message because it is not connected. You can ignore it, but then you will miss any other errore message because of it - while your wife/girlfriend/etc, will tell keep on asking you why you don't connect that damned device and get rid of the message

        Fridge error checking 101 : Is stuff cold? If yes, fridge OK.

        And the "Homer Simpson Engine Light Fix" is a perfect solution for "stopping" the display of any error or other messages. The screen would make a great place for your kid's pictures.. Backlit even... :)

        (I need a "very damned late post" icon!)

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Have i missed something?

      "A fridge, for example, its unlikely you will have an ethernet point in the kitchen"

      Err, I have two in the kitchen. And... 6 in the lounge, 2 in the dining room, 1 in each bedroom, and 6 in the study... Didn't bother to put any in the bathroom/toilet...

      Done 10 years ago, cost under £50 for cable/sockets and a weekend taking up floorboards. No wired gigabit is ***soooo*** much faster than wifi... :)

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    JOIN-THE-DOTS

    South Korea is a US subsidiary-the NSA has just bulit a shiny new Data Centre......they've got to fill all those racks with something-the Kinnect2 has been rumbled so.....this is Plan B.

  13. Dweeb Coder

    oh hum

    I suspect given the size of the libraries used to check the multiple languages the cloud is the only way to get advanced voice recognition working. Features like this assist people with accessibility problems. If you don't need switch it off it get off your a**e and find the remote.

    1. Roger Lipscombe
      Big Brother

      Re: oh hum

      If the privacy agreement said that this data would be shared with a specific, named, third party, and only that third party, only for the purposes of voice recognition, and would not be stored at all once the recognition was done, there would probably be less uproar -- tinfoil hat brigade excepted.

      It's the "we're listening to your living room, and who knows who we're giving that data to, because we certainly don't" clause that's really bothersome.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "If you don't need switch it off" ...

      Assumption is the mother of all f*uckups!..........

      I can see diplomats, journalists, whistleblowers, corporate executives and politicians finding out after 6-months that their 3-year old turned-on the voice recog feature by accident....

      Ouch!

      Sure hope that on-screen microphone icon is clearly visible on all models, and itself can't be turned off by accident!...

  14. GrumpyOldMan
    Windows

    Our Sammy TV only gets hooked up to the web when we want to watch something on LoveFilm / Amazon Prime Video. Otherwise I have a tablet that runs full-fat HDMI and an HDMI lead to the telly. I watch iPlayer and stuff on that. Works a treat.

    How many people actually believe that if you disable voice control it disables the voice recognition or the mic? nope - me neither. Although I'm tempted to find the mic and cover it. or cut it off altogether, unless theres a hidden one in there too. And a camera. And little green men....

    Sorry - getting carried away.

    I'll get me tin hat and coat....

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Even if, and it’s a big if, Samsung is innocent....

    ....and LG was innocent before them. Two thorny questions remain :---

    1. How difficult will it be for hackers, spies, criminals, rogue police, espionage agents, corrupt diplomats or rogue telcos etc, to gain remote access to the microphone on a new smart TV? (Disabling the mic icon)

    2. WTF is in the 20-50 page privacy document that ships with every Smart TV? There are numerous weasel clauses in there that are completely vague and permit TV makers to change gear at any time.

    ==========================

    --- One thing's for sure, a built-in TV mic / camera is a ticking time bomb for someone… The next Snowden... Wikileaks.... Guardian tech journalist.... What if you're a whistleblower? Will you be comfortable with your new Smart TV?

    --- There won't be many basic Led's and Plasma's soon either, unless we push back and send TV makers a strong message!

    1. Kevin Johnston

      Re: Even if, and it’s a big if, Samsung is innocent....

      and that is why I don't want a TV, I just want a large monitor....

      cheaper, just as good a picture and I can run sound through a separate audio system to get good channel separation.

      Oh yeah...and they are easier to take apart to look for microphones/cameras/whatever

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Well well, the corruption does on and up

      1) Has everyone forgotten what a sniffer is. turn the mic on whilst turning the icon off or whilst its in "standby" easy pezzy for anyone with enough time and the motivation just spoof the Samsung server.

      We have the tellycaster and they are making us pay for it ourselves not even Oswell probably dreamt that one but we all have mobile trackers and voice tappers in out pockets already. BigBrother cant believe how lucky he's been.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Well well, the corruption does on and up

        "1) Has everyone forgotten what a sniffer is. turn the mic on whilst turning the icon off or whilst its in "standby" easy pezzy for anyone with enough time and the motivation just spoof the Samsung server."

        Unless the connection is SSL (meaning you can't MitM it without Samsung's private key) and/or they obfuscate the transmissions over use of the Smart Apps (so that blocking the mic involves blocking everything else, including essential update functions). And as some have said, what happens when ALL TVs and monitors going forward carry this feature and can't be turned off, plus all the "dumb" TVs start dying off?

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Presidents' Day

    Perhaps Samsung is just positioning itself for a big blowout sale in memory of Richard Nixon on Presidents' Day.

  17. crayon

    "Why pick on Oz?"

    Try reading the whole article - the next paragraph says:

    "Vulture South doesn't follow police scandals in other countries, but we wouldn't be surprised if such patterns were repeated elsewhere."

    ---

    "I suspect given the size of the libraries used to check the multiple languages the cloud is the only way to get advanced voice recognition working."

    Computers have been doing speech recognition even back in the days when DOS was widespread. My Nokia E70 had rudimentary speech commands (and understood at least 2 languages) builtin. The processing power/ram/storage on a modern "smart" TV is more than adequate for speech recognition.

    If Samsung cared even a little bit about privacy they could have implemented a 2-tier system, simple commands like "volume up/down", "channel up/down", "mute" etc could be processed onboard without a f*cking stupid round trip to the internet. In fact the "simple commands" would cover all the standard TV functions (at least - ie it could also cover some "smart" TV functions like display the local weather when you say "weather" (assuming you have already programmed your location into the thing)). Only more sophisticated "natural language" commands would warrant a trip to the internet. The user can then choose to only use simple commands, and never have their voice data sent over the internet.

    1. heyrick Silver badge

      Or... Display some words on the screen that you read aloud a few times and it can learn your speech. Provide provision for five people to be "learned", well within the capabilities of a modern SoC and should support an average family. No need to push data elsewhere.

    2. graeme leggett Silver badge

      perhaps there's a market for a voice operated app on your mobile phone that sends commands to the TV. That would create a barrier between you and the TV manufacturer.

      or a voice operated app that sends the equivalent of key-presses to the app that controls the TV.

      Now of course to save on programming, you need a "cloudy" provider of voice recognition.... oh.

  18. rav

    Is all this necessary?

    Why do we have to have an "internet of things"?

    Is it improving our lives? NO. We are being spied upon, tracked and stalked.

    All of the data that drops out of devices is being collated, scanned and judged. If some algorythm determines that you are livng the life of a criminal or terrorist then your life is over.

    Your privacy is already gone.

    It is illegal in all 50 United States to monitor and record conversations whose participants expect a reasonable expectation of privacy.

    This is a class action lawsuit just waiting to slam dunk Samsung.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Is all this necessary?

      Two problems with your "illegal" hypothesis.

      1. Many states have a "one-party" rule regarding recording private conversations. Meaning if one party consents to recording, then it's legal. If one party is the recording party, then that consent can be implied. Obviously, the equipment manufacturers are consenting to the recording, so...

      2. They can also construe that, by buying the device and consenting to its use, you also give your consent to have it record you. And any kind of explicit consent regulation won't work here as they'll just use the consent screen as a barrier, and you know how frustrated people can be when they have to click OK again and again: to the point of "Just get it the hell over with already!" With such a mindset, the war's already lost.

  19. Pax681

    non story ref TV's

    to use voice on a Samsung smart TV you HAVE TO PRESS A BUTTON ON THE REMOTE.

    it is NOT "always on".

    Also the "third party" is Nuance when you do press the button.. you know.. world leaders in WHAT THEY DO... http://www.nuance.com/index.htm AND http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuance_Communications .. ALL THIS PALAVA ABOUT ""OOOH THE TV IS LISTENING!!"

    what a load of FUD being spread

  20. WereWoof

    I wonder how many Smart Voice controlled spying devices will get a heavy object through the screen during flu season when your voice can change significantly, No disrespect to Glaswegians but understanding one isn`t that easy at the best of times, now imagine the TV pissing off a drunk Glaswegian who also has Flu . . . . Of course this can be seen as a bonus to the makers as it means they may sell one a year rather than one every few years.

  21. paulnick2

    The most irritating thing is Australian Govt. wants sensitive information of internet users. Being an internet user, why i should give my data to companies and agencies?

    VPN is the only way to fight off this government-imposed threat and protect your online privacy for good as explained here https://www.purevpn.com/blog/why-data-retention-in-australia-is-worse-and-how-vpn-can-protect-you/

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like