Samsung has said it will ban smart TV apps that secretly turn users' devices into "residential proxies", after a cybersecurity firm found some apps could reroute strangers' internet traffic through customers' home connections without their knowledge. The move follows a report from cybersecurity company Mnemonic, which discovered that certain apps on Samsung's smart TV platform contained hidden functions allowing outside parties' web requests to appear as if they came from the TV owner's own connection, raising privacy and security concerns for unwitting users.

Mnemonic identified a Pac-Man licensed game, which had featured in Samsung's Editor's Choice section, as one app capable of converting a smart TV into a "residential proxy exit node" at the flip of a switch. After being contacted by TechCrunch, which first reported the story, Samsung said it would introduce "strict platform-wide developer policies" explicitly prohibiting residential proxy SDKs, which can lie dormant in an app until activated. The issue is not unique to Samsung: LG announced last month it would suspend apps found doing the same, and residential proxies have similarly plagued VPN services, particularly free ones.