Panasonic respond to Samsung’s snooping TVs – Exclusive

In the last few days there have been several articles about Smart TVs and the voice command function. I have reached out to the lovely people at Panasonic, makers of the Viera 4K televisions, to find out if their sets do the same as Sammy’s.

Here is the response from Panasonic:

The Panasonic Viera TVs are equipped with an internal microphone, for the TVs to be directed via voice command. Voice recognition is a convenient way to access TV content and services, search the Internet, and easily control the TV set.

Viera TV users are required to accept license terms, before the voice recognition function is enabled.

Whereas the Viera TV itself does not constantly monitor conversations, the license terms advise, that users should not include any personal information in the voice commands.

To activate the microphone, the microphone button of the touch remote control of the TV needs to be pushed or the “info bar” functionality needs to be activated. Only then the microphone recognises voice commands.

The microphone functionality activated through the remote control button switches off automatically directly after the voice command has been inputted.

The info bar functionality only activates the microphone when a person is recognised nearby the TV symbolised on the screen by a microphone icon. The “info bar” function can also be completely switched off.

Does that make you feel any easier?

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