Samsung Magician refuses to update firmware without collecting personal data

Samsung's SSD toolbox, Magician, requires users to agree to collection of personal data, if they don't, they can't upgrade their firmware.  Users are presented with a privacy policy after they've agreed to the terms and conditions. The privacy policy has an accompanying text stating that if users not agree, they won't be able to update their firmware.

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Users on Twitter and Reddit have started to complain about the issue that seems to be introduced in version 4.9 of the tool. Samsung hasn't mentioned the changes in its privacy policy in the changelog of the software.

The privacy policy is about 600 words and states that the software can collect your IP address and the device IDs of connected devices. This makes it possible to identify both the user and the device. The collected data is stored in servers in South Korea, where Samsung originates from.

For users of the latest Samsung SSDs,  that don't want to give their data to the company there is no other way to update their firmware. The Samsung 750 Evo, 850 Evo, 850 Pro and 950 Pro SSDs all require Magician to update the firmware. For older drives the electronics giant has ISO files available.

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Firmware updates for SSDs are sometimes released to fix issue with performance or reliability.

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