Your Personal Information is Protected on Your Samsung Smart TV

It wasn’t long ago when television was a one directional medium. There were only a handful of broadcasters transmitting programs and viewers could only watch programming according to a pre-determined schedule. This is no longer the case and, simply put, this old-fashioned paradigm of “television” is no longer relevant.

Today, Smart TVs with their connectivity capabilities are continuously breaking the norms and enabling users to take advantage of a far more advanced and accelerated TV experience. Consumers expect to control their video content experience, want to be able to engage with their content and tailor it to their personal interests.

Samsung, as a pioneer and the market leader in the global Smart TV sector, has been at the forefront of this innovation, and our focus remains on building intelligent and integrated systems and services that will give customers seamless and, intuitive access, more content choices and an enhanced integrated entertainment experience.

We believe that our success depends on consumers’ trust in us, and the products and services that we provide. With more TV changes and innovations than ever before, we want to make sure that our Samsung consumers understand what the enhanced TV experience means to them, beyond the additional features and controls.

Because the trust and privacy of users is critical to us, we take painstaking efforts to protect all consumer information that we have – be it personal data, usage data or device identifiers. We deeply honor the trust placed in us to deliver on that commitment, and below we wanted to share our privacy principles and steps that consumers can take to ensure that their TVs and the information on their TVs are as secure as possible, all the time. Further details about how personal data is processed can be found in Samsung’s Privacy Policy, which can be reviewed at any time by clicking here.

Five Principles of Samsung Smart TV Data Protection

Protecting your data and information is not only necessary, it is also in everyone’s best interests. That’s why Samsung has developed the Five Principles of Samsung Smart TV Data Protection. All of Samsung’s privacy practices stem from the basic principles set forth below.

• Privacy by Design: Samsung Smart TVs incorporate and embed privacy as a core component directly into all of our systems and services at the onset, not as an afterthought. The aim is to make sure that we are doing everything we can to be proactive, and not reactive, with respect to data and information, and to make sure that our consumers feel comfortable.
• End-to-End Security: Strong security measures are the backbone of privacy and data protection, and as such, we provide topnotch security throughout the Smart TV experience, from an administrative, to technical, to physical. This is done to safeguard our end-users against security risks, including but not limited to loss or unauthorized access and destruction, use, modification or disclosure of data/information. If at any time there is a potential vulnerability identified, Samsung will act promptly to investigate and resolve the issue in order to fully secure consumers’ personal data.
• Visibility and Transparency: We know that it is in everyone’s best interests for our consumers to be fully informed and educated about our privacy practices. Samsung always aims to provide open disclosure of our privacy practices so that we can assure our loyal consumers that products and services they use are safe and secure.
• User-Centric: Our Samsung Smart TVs are designed to optimize interests of the user in its offerings. We know that TV owners have a choice when purchasing their Smart TVs, and we want to respect that choice and ensure that the protection of privacy is part of this decision. Therefore, legitimate interests and objectives are accommodated, rather than making unnecessary trade-offs.
• Accountability: As the world’s largest technology company, we have many touch points with consumers throughout the day. We believe that ultimately we are accountable for our privacy practices, not our users. To that end, we feel that data protection is our responsibility, not because it may be legally mandated, but rather because it is the right thing to do.

The future of the Samsung Smart TV relies on safe and secure measures being set in place for consumers. For this reason, Samsung continuously invests in cutting-edge technologies that yield long-term security solutions. In order to combat the many perils existing in the online world, the Smart TV is designed to implement what is called a “Three Stage Model Security Solution”. This means security is designed and embedded in Samsung devices at three separate layers in order to provide the best possible protection: the Service Stage, Platform Stage and Hardware Stage.

In the initial Service Security stage, Samsung Smart TVs leverage vaccine engines to prevent external intruders from attacking your network. This stage is designed to block phishing sites on the web from accessing devices and detect infections from malicious codes. Next, at the Platform Security stage, important data is encrypted before it is stored. Subsequently, a standardized encryption process is deployed to protect the data when communicating with external servers to prevent attackers from stealing your data at this stage. Also, malicious applications and unauthorized files attempting to access the device are detected and blocked, helping to preserve stable operational environments for the TV. Finally, through the Hardware Security stage, information leakage is prevented through the physical segregation of operational spaces at the hardware level. The reliable Operating System (OS) and services are also protected to boot safely in the TV.

Service Security Technology

Samsung’s Smart TVs use security features on their Web Browser, along with the Smart Security features to ensure safe usage of Internet-based services on TVs.

The Samsung Smart TV Web Browser has a security feature that creates a pop-up alert when the user clicks on suspicious web sites. By prompting the user to proceed or reject the pop-up, this can help to prevent personal information from being leaked through covert phishing or malicious web sites. Web Browser Security features can be configured through the “Setting” menu in the Web Browser.

In addition, anti-malware is a vaccine engine that detects malicious software (malware) attempting to sneak into the TV system and cause damage. Ultimately, anti-malware prevents harmful codes from running; it monitors the system and analyzes information linked to the malicious files. Additionally, Network Protection obstructs any malicious external attacks that could penetrate user’s networks. All of these features can be activated through the “Setting” menu in the path, System – Smart Security, and is recommended to remain turned “On” at all times.

Platform Security Technology

Samsung’s Smart TV protects important data – such as user account and password information – by encrypting the data before storing it. When connecting with a server, Samsung’s Smart TV first verifies the authenticity of the certificate transmitted by the server. Then, it creates encryption keys that are used for communication with the server. During exchanges with servers, all communicated content is encrypted in order to prevent any third parties from wiretapping and from modifying data, and to eliminate the possibility of unauthorized access to user information.

Samsung’s Smart TV detects and blocks various attacks that threaten the operational environment of the TV. Utilizing the Platform Security Technology, stable software operating environments are provided where a variety of Smart TV services can run securely – blocking unauthorized codes from accessing the TV and from attacking vulnerable spots within the platform.

Hardware Security Technology

Samsung’s Smart TV offers an independent and powerful security solution – it prevents data from being leaked by separating the physical space in the hardware for the core software to operate in. Also, through the process of authentication based on hardware, it only operates with a reliable OS. Secure technology, with a strong foundation at the hardware level guarantees the stability of the services and the software platform.

Voice Recognition and Gesture Control

By employing industry-standard securing technology, Samsung’s Smart TV offers a voice recognition and gesture control service that allows configuration of TV menus and settings through users’ voices and physical motions.

Upon pushing the microphone button on the Samsung Smart Control, a Voice Recognition icon appears on the screen, indicating that the TV is ready for the user’s vocal cues. The principle behind the Voice Recognition service is that it converts any word command input into text to assist operation of the Smart TV. Therefore, once the user consents to the ‘Voice Recognition Services,’ conversational voice commands can be transferred to the business partner. Only the voice commands requested through the Smart Control microphone are collected, and the Voice Recognition icon indicated on the screen informs the user that the function is active.

For the Facial Recognition service, the facial image of the user is only stored in the Smart TV at the request of the user, and is not transferred to any other servers. The usage data is transferred to Samsung’s server through encrypted transmissions only to improve the service by analyzing usage patterns and settings.

Smart TV Ad Platform (in select markets)

Samsung Smart TV Advertisement Service is a service that relays information to users. In a specified area, it provides recommendations on movies, apps and content as well as products that might be interesting to the user – allowing better search functionality and easy access to the items. This service is designed not to disturb the TV viewing experience. Users can consent to receive more customized information.

Our Smart TV is user-centric and it is designed to allow for to most available choice and control. We have put in place additional protective measures to further protect our users who would like to take advantage of this immersive and interactive feature.  For these users we have developed an entirely new device identifier that is one-way hashed, anonymized, randomized and resettable identifier called the “PSID”.  The PSID provides protection on two separate levels, in that even if disclosed to a third party, intentionally or accidentally, it cannot be re-traced to our user.

Furthermore, this PSID can be reset at any time by the user, so that any form of historical profiles cannot be referenced anymore at the push of a button. It is comparable to clearing the cache on your computer. It is this type of concern and care that we have implemented into the Ad Platform that helps to ensure that our customer and their data are adequately protected.

Some Helpful Tips on Staying Secure

1. Avoid simple passwords for the wireless router and online accounts. It is recommended to avoid easily inferable passwords and instead use highly personalized passwords that only the user can remember. Also, it’s suggested that users integrate a combination of numbers, letters and special characters when setting a password, and change it often
2. Keep your Samsung Smart TV software updated. We strongly recommend that all users accept our software updates immediately when an alert appears on a Samsung Smart TV. These provide improved TV features and, the latest version of security technology.
3. Avoid suspicious websites or links while surfing on the Internet. Online crimes are becoming more complex and sophisticated. We advise all Smart TV users to not click on any suspicious links and only visit credible websites.
4. Keep your Smart Security function active all the time. When Smart Security is active, it creates pop-up alerts when the user visits a suspicious website. It also monitors the system with a vaccine engine to detect malware and prevent infection. The features in Smart Security can be activated through the “Setting” menu in the path System – Smart Security, and is recommended to remain turned “On” at all times.

*All features, specifications and other product information provided in this document are applicable only to 2015 Samsung Smart TVs.