Why Reddit is losing out on Samsung’s new privacy policy

samsung recently updated it Privacy policy for all users with a Samsung account, effective October 1. One of her Redditors read the policy, No like what they saw, and shared to r/android, highlighting what they consider to be the worst policy points of the document. The thread exploded with Android users denouncing Samsung’s new policy. But why is everyone so upset? Is it worth worrying about? Let’s explore.

Samsung Privacy Policy teeth a little creepy

From the jump, the new policy doesn’t look good. In fact, it looks downright invasive. There’s the standard data present we’ve come to expect: when you create a Samsung account, you’re required to provide personal information like your name, age, address, email address, and gender.

However, Samsung does collect data such as credit card information, usernames and passwords for third-party services, photos, contacts, text logs, voice recordings generated during voice commands, and location data, including precise location data. It also mentions doing Nearby Wi-Fi access points, cell towers, etc. It might surprise you to learn that a company like Samsung can keep chat transcripts, contacts and voice recordings, but there is precedent. Listen to voice recordings from Siri requestswhich included all kinds of personal conversations and activities.

Samsung also tracks general activity through cookies, pixels, web beacons and other means. The company claims this tracking is done for a variety of reasons. Almost everything you need to know about your device is collected. The policy tells you to adjust your privacy settings if you feel uncomfortable with this default tracking ( won’t be).

According to the company, many Uses of this information, such as to serve advertisements, communicate with customers, enhance our services, improve our business, identify and prevent fraud and criminal activity, and comply with applicable legal requirements. In addition, they reserve the right to share your information with “Subsidiaries and Affiliates”, “Business Partners and Third Parties”, as well as law enforcement and other authorities. This means that, in some circumstances, your Samsung data could end up in the hands of third parties. many third party.

But that’s not all. Under the “Notice to California Residents” section, you’ll see the most helpful policies. Most of the information is the same, but there is one additional note about the data Samsung collects, broken down differently: biometric information. The company didn’t elaborate, but the entry suggests Samsung gets the data from facial and fingerprint scans. Traditionally, this information was stored on your device. For example, Apple can’t access face scan on iPhoneClearly, this is potentially a concern.

In addition, the California Residents section describes the data Samsung sells to third parties. Samsung may have sold your data, including device identifiers (cookies, pixel tags, etc.), purchase history and trends, and network activity, including interaction with websites, 12 months before this new policy took effect. said to be sexual. .

This is not really new from samsung

So far this seems like a lot Wow. The problem is that it’s not really new. Much of the wording in the October 1st update of the Privacy Policy remains the same as in previous versions.Thread commenter Linked to January 1, 2021 and later versions of the policy, with all of the most important policies, including biometric data collection. The truth is, this is the current state of Samsung.

That doesn’t change the creepiness of some of the words in the policy. Unfortunately, diving into the privacy policies of most other technologies is similarly confusing. Samsung isn’t the only company that collects, shares, and sells data.

One Redditor makes a great point Read more about privacy violation redundancies here. Sure, Google might have a similar policy in place, but Samsung runs his Android, so he’s really dealing with two interfering companies instead of one. It will be.

Given their hardware prices, non-removable bloatware that generally outperforms Google’s software, and an anti-repair campaign (and some reflection on hardware), I can see why you’d buy their phones over Google. not. Only one company at a time can give me intrusive insight into my personal devices. Thank you.

Lock privacy settings

Counter-argument: Samsung makes some great devices, and Samsung is the only company developing something “innovative” these days. Dive into your device’s privacy settings and make the most of it all You can do it. Don’t consent to data sharing, turn off all available tracking, lock your account and do what you can. Samsung may not allow you to turn your Galaxy into a data security beacon, but it can offer much more functionality than the default settings.