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For a company that has been mired in negative headlines for months, just about the last thing Samsung Electronics Co. needed was news its smart TVs could be used to spy on users.

According to documents released by WikiLeaks, that is exactly what the Central Intelligence Agency did with a program called “Weeping Angel.” In essence, it uses a television’s microphone, a feature designed to allow voice commands, to pick up and transmit information while the device appears to be switched off.

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While Samsung wasn’t the only company named in the WikiLeaks documents — Apple Inc. and Google also got a mention — it’s still a problem for the South Korean giant. The maker of Galaxy smartphones has been struggling to recover from the debacle of exploding Note 7 smartphones that have cost it billions of dollars while heir apparent Jay Y. Lee is set to stand trial on charges of bribery and embezzlement in an influence-peddling scandal. The trial starts Thursday.