How do you actually check if a smart TV app is safe to install?

With this Samsung proxy-app story going around, how would a regular person actually tell if a smart TV app is legitimate or hiding something malicious?

This is genuinely hard for an average user to catch on their own — that's exactly why this became news in the first place: it took a dedicated cybersecurity research firm digging into the code to find it, and even Samsung's own review process had featured one of the flagged apps as an "Editor's Choice." That said, a few practical habits help reduce risk generally: stick to well-known, established apps from major streaming services rather than obscure games or utilities with vague descriptions and few reviews; be skeptical of apps that ask for unusual permissions unrelated to their stated purpose; periodically check for and install smart TV firmware/software updates, since manufacturers push security fixes and app removals through them; and consider occasionally reviewing which apps are actually installed on your TV and removing ones you don't use or don't remember installing. If you want stronger protection, some home routers and mesh Wi-Fi systems offer network-level monitoring or the ability to isolate smart home/TV devices on a separate network segment from your computers and phones, which limits what a compromised device could access even if something does slip through.