Samsung’s Smart TVs don’t just eavesdrop, but ALSO insert ads into your movies

Samsung smart TV owners are reporting that the electronics giant is seemingly inserting adverts into television programs and films played through third-party apps. “Every movie I play, 20-30 minutes in it plays the Pepsi ad, no audio but crisp clear ad. It has happened on 6 movies today,” complains one redditor on the subreddit for Plex, a third-party Samsung smart TV app that allows users to remotely play content stored on their computers or on a Networked Attached Storage device. This new incident could not come at a worse time, coinciding with the recent controversy after an owner discovered that the company’s privacy policy implied their televisions may be listening on your conversations.

“This seems to be caused by an error, and we are currently conducting a full and thorough investigation into the cause as our top priority,” stated a Samsung spokeswoman. 

On the surface, the issue appears be related to the Plex app itself, but the company denied involvement when contacted by reporters from Gigaom . What’s more, the error is not confined to Plex, perpetrating the same set of circumstances on Australia’s Foxtel TV app, an app installed by default on Samsung’s Australian TVs.

Tech outfit Ars Technica points out that earlier in January, blogger David Chartier discovered a Yahoo Terms & Policy Agreement outlining what appeared to be Samsung’s partnership with Yahoo, setting in motion plans for future ad insertion. A short time later, Samsung, speaking with Business Insider, promised the ads would be “opt-in” rather than automatic. But for some reason — whether by error, or deliberately — the setting was turned on by default on new Samsung TVs.

The image of Chartier’s TV highlights Samsung’s partnership with Yahoo to serve pop-up ads  

According to a post made by redditor, jlasher , the ads can be disabled: “press Menu on your Samsung Remote and scroll to Smart Hub > Terms & Policy > Yahoo Privacy Policy. Scroll to ‘I disagree with the Yahoo Privacy Notice.’ and you can toggle the option on to opt-out.”

Giagaom’s Janko Roettgers reports that Samsung actually sought to sell ad space on smart TV apps back when the technology gained its initially momentum, but cancelled its initiative after it realized people didn’t want to pay for TV apps. Later, Samsung cancelled its TV rental platform as well, another would-be source of ad revenue, after it realized that customers were much more content using Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime. This leaves monetizing third-party apps as the company’s sole option in extorting ad revenue. Whether it proceeds with this venture remains to be seen.

 Source: Ars Technica via Giagaom