A security researcher who rooted their own 2025 Samsung TV says the set logs sounds like barking dogs and crying babies, and that models without a built-in microphone look for one on connected devices such as soundbars, as Mashable reported. Samsung hasn't commented, and some of these claims are disputed. Here's what was found, what isn't proven, and the settings you can change tonight.
In Short
- A researcher known as “log4j” says Samsung TVs report sound events to Samsung and search for microphones on connected devices.
- Nothing has been independently verified, and Samsung has not responded.
- Three settings in your TV's Privacy Choices menu limit the data it shares.
What the Researcher Claims to Have Found
Picture this: your TV sits in standby, the dog barks, and a counter ticks up somewhere in Samsung's cloud. That's the core of the claims “log4j” has been posting on X since October 21, according to Notebookcheck. The researcher says the TV's telemetry includes an event named EV201/SOUNDSENSOR_ON that counts dog barks and baby cries, then sends those counts to a Samsung server.
The part that caught everyone's attention: TVs without their own microphone reportedly look for a connected device that has one, like a soundbar or a Bluetooth speaker. The researcher also claims the TV loads a region-specific neural network that tracks what you do in apps such as YouTube, including which ads you skip.
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Why This Isn't Proven Yet
Some of this matches features Samsung openly advertises. Pet Care and Family Care detect barking and crying on the TV and send alerts through the SmartThings app, and Samsung is discontinuing Family Care over low usage and false alarms. What Samsung doesn't advertise is that these event counts go back to its servers.
The microphone search is less clear-cut. “Discovering nearby devices is not the same as accessing them,” suggesting it could serve karaoke or video-calling apps. Notebookcheck adds that nobody has yet traced what happens to the data once it leaves the TV.
Samsung's Track Record on TV Data
This isn't the first time Samsung's TV data practices have been questioned. Samsung settled with the Texas Attorney General and agreed to get Texans' express consent before collecting viewing data through automatic content recognition (ACR), as Malwarebytes recaps. A new class action filed in California this month also accuses Samsung of not being transparent about ACR.
How to Limit What Your Samsung TV Shares
Press Home on your remote, then go to Settings, Support, Terms & Privacy, and Privacy Choices. On some models, the path is Settings, All Settings, General & Privacy, Terms & Privacy, as Security Boulevard notes. From there, turn off:
- Viewing Information Services (Samsung's ACR setting)
- Interest-Based Advertising
- Voice Recognition Services, which also disables voice control
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The Limit
These settings may not stop everything. The researcher warns that turning off ACR in the menu may not disable all ACR telemetry, and suggests disconnecting the TV from Wi-Fi or using an external streaming box instead, according to Malwarebytes. The researcher's full write-up hasn't been published yet, and another user who tested a rooted Tizen TV reported that the microphone opened for five seconds and then went quiet, per Notebookcheck. Until Samsung responds, treat these as claims, not confirmed facts.
Keep an eye on your TV's privacy menu: it's worth five minutes of your evening!
