Researcher says Samsung TV software gathers audio and screenshots for ad targeting
The findings remain unverified on unmodified hardware, and the full write-up has not yet been published.
A cybersecurity researcher who goes by log4j reported that a 2025 Samsung TV appeared to gather user data for ad targeting after they reverse-engineered its Tizen operating system. Their posts described packet logging, audio categorization, screenshots, and a cross-device advertising identifier, along with a neural network said to track viewing habits such as skipped ads and playback progress. The researcher also claimed that TVs without microphones could draw on audio from connected devices like a soundbar. A Hugging Face engineer tested the microphone claim and saw the TV open the mic for five seconds, but noted their device was already rooted and modified, so stock units could behave differently. OpenAI later banned the researcher's account for cyber abuse, which log4j disputes, saying they used its tools only for local reverse engineering. Developers and owners should note that the findings remain unverified on unmodified hardware, and a full write-up is still in progress.
Why it matters
The claims point to viewing and audio data being used for advertising on connected TVs, a concern for anyone who owns one of these sets. One test showed the microphone opening briefly, but that test ran on a rooted, modified TV, so it is not yet clear whether stock sets behave the same way. The researcher's account also drew a ban from OpenAI, which the researcher disputes, adding a question about how the work was carried out. Until the full write-up appears and independent checks are made on unmodified hardware, the scale of the data collection stays unknown.
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