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| There are claims that Samsung TVs without a microphone will look for a connected device that has one, like a soundbar. |
A security researcher digging into a 2025 Samsung TV has unearthed telemetry that reportedly counts dog barks and baby cries — and claims sets without a built-in microphone will hunt for a connected soundbar or Bluetooth speaker that has one.
If you bought a Samsung TV without a microphone specifically to keep it from listening in, a new researcher claim suggests that precaution may not be as airtight as you'd hoped.
The researcher, who goes by log4j on X, began poking around a 2025 Samsung set after noticing it kept serving up uncomfortably specific ads. Since October 21, they've been publishing findings pulled from the TV's Tizen software — and the latest batch centers on sound.
Samsung TV Telemetry Includes Barking and Crying Counters
According to log4j, Samsung's telemetry contains counters for dog-barking and baby-crying events, filed under an event labeled EV201/SOUNDSENSOR_ON. Other logged entries reportedly include a software flag for the ambient light sensor, camera-state fields, and camera streaming duration. The data travels out as key-value pairs and is written to one of Samsung's cloud servers.
The detection feature itself isn't a secret. Samsung openly markets Pet Care and Family Care on its 2025 Vision AI TVs, both of which use on-device AI to pick up barking or crying and push an alert through the SmartThings app. Pet Care, according to Samsung, only works when the TV is switched off.
What Samsung doesn't explicitly spell out, however, is that counts of those events appear to be reported back to the company as well.
The Soundbar Loophole
The more eyebrow-raising allegation is that Samsung TVs lacking a microphone will actively look for a connected device that has one — a soundbar or a Bluetooth speaker, for example — and route that audio to Bixby.
"This is pretty evil and clever," log4j wrote in a separate post on X. "So if your Samsung TV model doesn't have a microphone, it will look for connected devices with one, such as a soundbar or a connected Bluetooth device. This gets shipped off to Bixby."
That claim comes with caveats, even from the researcher. log4j's own notes concede the counters don't prove an alert was ever actually shown, and that the full lifecycle of the data remains untraced. Another user, ngxson, reportedly watched a rooted Tizen TV open its microphone for five seconds before going quiet — though they noted a stock, unmodified TV might behave differently.
Region-Specific Neural Network Flagged
The findings don't stop at audio. log4j says the TV loads a region-specific convolutional neural network — LogoCNN.bin and cnn.mapping — that tracks what you do inside apps like YouTube, including the videos you watch, the ads you skip, and your progress through a video.
The researcher also reported finding code for facial recognition within content, though they're still investigating whether it's used by Samsung's background services or is simply stock OpenCV code. Scans for bounding boxes inside apps can reportedly load new modules over time to expand coverage.
A full write-up spanning roughly 44 sections has been promised, but wasn't published at the time of writing.
Samsung Isn't Alone — and It Isn't Talking
Samsung has not commented on any of the claims. The company is also not the only TV maker facing scrutiny over what its sets get up to in the background. In September, a Gamers Nexus investigation showed LG smart TVs mapping devices on home networks and capturing microphone audio while in standby.
For now, the findings remain allegations from an independent researcher rather than confirmed behavior across Samsung's lineup. But if the claims hold up, they raise fresh questions about how much "on-device" processing really stays on the device — and whether buying a mic-free TV actually buys you any privacy at all.
Sources: @log4j via X (1) | @log4j via X (2)
this is pretty evil and clever. so if your samsung TV model doesnt have a microphone, it will look for connected devices with one, such as a soundbar or a connected bluetooth device. this gets shipped off to bixby.
— log4j (@log4j) October 23, 2026