# Researcher alleges Samsung TV software collects audio and screenshots for ad targeting

_Published Sunday, October 25, 2026 at 7:06 AM EDT · Security, Products · Latest · Tier 2 — Notable_

![Woman pointing remote at TV — Primary](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/EiDyWR9Yo8wN9DnMZqQdJ4-2560-80.jpg)

Reverse engineer log4j says an examination of a 2025 Samsung TV's Tizen operating system uncovered audio collection, screenshots and identifiers used to track users across devices for advertising, Tom's Hardware reported.

The researcher also reported finding a region-specific neural network that tracks viewing behavior, including skipped ads and video progress, and software that seeks microphones on connected devices when the TV lacks one.

Hugging Face engineer ngxson separately observed a TV activate a microphone for five seconds, with no further response hours later. That television was rooted and had multiple settings disabled, limiting what the test establishes about unmodified devices.

## Sources

- [Tom's Hardware](https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/cyber-security/hacker-finds-own-samsung-tv-collecting-scary-amounts-of-user-information-and-gets-banned-by-openai-for-cyber-abuse-tv-runs-an-ai-model-that-collects-audio-screenshots-and-plenty-of-other-user-data-for-ad-targeting)

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Canonical: https://techandbusiness.org/newswire/J2YBJah0dmQQ-FS8ltDbCM
Published: 2026-10-25T11:06:20.476Z
Story chronology: 2026-10-25T10:00:00.000Z
Retrieved: 2026-10-25T13:20:13.926Z
Publisher: Tech & Business (techandbusiness.org)