The new privacy policy for Samsung’s smart TVs allows the company and its partners to listen in on everything their users say. 
 
 The policy has drawn the ire of internet users, who compared it with George Orwell’s dystopian fiction 1984. 
 
 While voice recognition software almost always transmits data on what users are saying — so that the job of decoding it can be done by quicker computers elsewhere — the combination of sending the data to third-parties and the comparison with Orwell has meant that the Samsung policy has drawn particular attention. 
 
 The policy states: “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.” 
 
 It makes clear that the tool can be turned off through settings, though that will stop the voice recognition working entirely and Samsung will still continue to collect data about how people use the TV. 
 
 “While Samsung will not collect your spoken word, Samsung may still collect associated texts and other usage data so that we can evaluate the performance of the feature and improve it,” the policy states. 
 
 It bears similarities to the telescreens used in 1984, as pointed out by Twitter user and Electronic Frontier Foundation activist Parker Higgins. 
 
 In that book, Orwell writes: “Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by [the screen], moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard. 
 
 “There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork.” 
 
 A Samsung statement said that data is encrypted to keep it safe, and that owners can disconnect the TV from wifi if they want to keep their data safe. Users can tell when the feature is activated because a microphone appears on screen. 
 
 Many saw the policy as a warning about the internet of things — the new trend towards internet-enabled devices in the home — which some say could allow companies to collect more data on its users than ever before. ||||| A data dump from WikiLeaks says the CIA can spy on you through your internet-connected Samsung television, which means government spies could know a lot more about you than whether you love Girls. 
 
 Earlier today, WikiLeaks released a trove of documents describing what it calls secret spying and hacking tools developed by the CIA and British intelligence. They include a Fake Off mode inserted into Samsung televisions. If activated, it makes the television appear to be off but keeps the power running so spies can capture audio and possibly video of anything in the room. Samsung has not yet responded to our request for comment. 
 
 It must be noted that the hack, codenamed Weeping Angel (a Doctor Who reference, by the way) applies only to Samsung televisions from 2012 and 2013 that feature outdated firmware versions 1111, 1112, and 1116. The exploit almost certainly impacts relatively few people, and there may be an easy way to tell if you've been hacked—Fake Off mode, as outlined in the 2014 document, leaves a blue LED on the back of the set illuminated. 
 
 Now, the CIA probably created this hack to target specific individuals, and it appears the hack can be loaded onto a television only via a USB firmware update that was recently disabled. So unless you're a known operative, it's unlikely the government compromised your TV. But we're sure you're still curious, so here's how to tell if it's happening: 
 
 The Telltale LED 
 
 In Fake Off mode, the screen appears off and the LEDs on the front of the set change color and dim, as you'd expect if you'd turned off your TV. Yet the TV remains powered and capable of recording conversations. Want to know if Big Brother is listening in? Look at the back of your set. The blue LED back there should be off. It remains illuminated in Fake Off mode, according to the documents WikiLeaks released. 
 
 Which TVs? 
 
 If you've got a Samsung from 2012 or 2013, check to see if you've got one of these models: From 2012: UNES8000F, E8000GF plasma, and UNES7550F. From 2013: UNF8000 series, F8500 plasma, UNF7500 series, and UNF7000 series. To determine your firmware version and to update it, go to the main menu, select Support, then select Software Update. 
 
 It is possible the CIA has updated Fake Off mode to address the telltale LED, and it's possible Samsung changed the LED on subsequent models. But the company acknowledged in 2015 that hackers could compromise the voice-control feature in some sets, and it took steps at the time to patch the problem. 
 
 Be Seeing You 
 
 The companies making internet-connected smart televisions have drawn criticism for collecting and sharing user data. If you want effective protection from unscrupulous companies, shifty hackers, and government spies, simply disconnect your TV from the internet. But if you remain worried, there's only one sure-fire method for preventing that: unplug the TV. ||||| Image copyright Samsung Image caption Samsung acknowledges that it uses software that has an impact on its energy efficiency scores 
 
 The European Commission says it is "following up" two reports that raise concerns that software used in TVs may be skewing their energy rating scores. 
 
 One study indicates that some Samsung TVs nearly halve their power consumption when a standardised test is carried out. 
 
 Another accuses a different unnamed manufacturer of adjusting the brightness of its sets when they "recognise" the test film involved. 
 
 Samsung has denied any wrongdoing. 
 
 It acknowledged that it used software that altered its televisions' performance during tests, but said this was the effect of a general energy efficiency feature that came into effect during normal use and had nothing to do with the testing process. 
 
 However, one environmental campaign group has likened the accusations to the Volkswagen diesel scandal, in which the German car firm admitted to programming its cars to deliberately cheat emissions tests. 
 
 Power drop 
 
 Televisions' energy efficiency ratings are based on the power they use while screening a 10-minute video, which contains a mix of fast and slow-moving content shown at different brightness levels. 
 
 Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Manufacturers must carry out a standardised energy efficiency test before they can put their screens on sale 
 
 Manufacturers run the test themselves and then file the results. Some of these are then double-checked by various countries' energy regulatory bodies. 
 
 The study involving Samsung was carried out by ComplianTV, a consortium that represents various non-governmental organisations including the UK's Energy Saving Trust (EST). News of the study was first reported by the Guardian newspaper. 
 
 ComplianTV's researchers found that the power demands of one of the South Korean firm's LCD TVs dropped from 70 watts to about 39 watts within a minute of the test video starting. 
 
 "That's not normal, it's an anomaly," explained Richard Kay, an EST spokesman. 
 
 But he added: "We don't have any evidence to back up the accusation that Samsung has a technology to recognise when it is tested." 
 
 Image copyright ComplianTV Image caption This graph shows how the Samsung TV reduced its power requirement shortly after the start of the test 
 
 Samsung said it "firmly rejected" suggestions that it had designed its TV settings to deliberately produce misleading power performance results. 
 
 But it acknowledged that "motion lighting" - a feature introduced in 2011 that controls TV screens' backlights - was causing the discrepancy. 
 
 "It is a standard out-of-the-box feature, which is switched on when the customer takes delivery of their TV, and remains on whenever the customer chooses to watch their TV in standard viewing mode," it said in a blog. 
 
 "It is a default setting which works both in the lab and at home; delivering energy savings and helping us to reduce our environmental impact." 
 
 Dimmer picture 
 
 The second study was carried out by the Swedish Energy Agency, which wrote to the European Commission to alert it of its findings in January. 
 
 The agency has not disclosed which company's televisions it tested. 
 
 But the BBC understands that sets belonging to a single manufacturer that was not Samsung were judged to "clearly recognise" the test film. 
 
 "These displays immediately lower their energy use by adjusting the brightness of the display when the standard film is being run," the report concluded. 
 
 "This is a way of avoiding the market surveillance authorities and should be addressed by the Commission." 
 
 'Brave new world' 
 
 Image copyright Getty Images Image caption A UK watchdog raised concerns about TVs changing their power requirements during tests four years ago 
 
 The European Commission said it now planned to explore the two sets of findings. 
 
 "We will follow up both of them," Anna-Kaisa Itkonen, spokeswoman for climate action and energy, told the BBC. 
 
 "We will first of all verify if the problem has occurred. If it has we will estimate at what scale and whether the use of alleged defeat devices results in products being tested as compliant when they are in fact not. 
 
 "So, we therefore cannot yet judge the extent of the problem." 
 
 She stressed that at this stage the Commission had not launched a formal investigation. 
 
 One campaign group highlighted that UK regulators had raised concerns about some TVs adjusting their power-use during tests "to get a better energy label ranking" as far back as 2011. 
 
 "We've got government agencies appearing to find gadgets that detect test conditions, which smacks of the VW case," said Jack Hunter from the European Environmental Bureau. 
 
 "We're entering a brave new world of sophisticated, connected technology, which could be a great thing, but is also open to abuse. 
 
 "It's vital that government officials have the resources and a bullish attitude to ensure that everyone is playing by the rules."
– Own a Samsung smart TV? Then take note: Your television is not only listening, it's sending your data to a third party, the Independent reports. The TV's voice-recognition software lets you give it orders, but the product's privacy policy warns that "personal or other sensitive information ... will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party through your use of Voice Recognition." Samsung tells the BBC that the third party is Nuance, the company that does Samsung's speech-to-text conversion. But intellectual property lawyer Corynne McSherry says it would be nice to see that clarified in Samsung's policy, the Daily Beast reports. "And I’d definitely like to know whether my words were being transmitted in a secure form," she says. An activist tweets that Samsung's policy sounds a lot like the description of "telescreens" in George Orwell's dystopian novel, 1984—which reads in part, "Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by [the screen]." Unnervingly, it wasn't clear how often "the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork." Samsung, however, says it doesn't keep voice data, and customers can opt to turn off voice-recognition or even unplug the TV from Wi-Fi. And Samsung isn't alone: the Verge reports that XBoxes already use voice recognition while being connected to the Internet. "Samsung's privacy policy is not unique; its rhetoric just happens to be similar to that of a well-known sci-fi novel," the Verge says.