Artificial Intelligence

LG Denies Report That LG Smart TVs Spy on Owners

Is your LG TV a harmless device with easily disabled tracking or a surveillance tool sold as entertainment?

Published SEP 11

LG Denies Report That LG Smart TVs Spy on Owners

Story

Above: An LG Signature Oled M smart television displayed during a press event at the 2023 CES event in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Jan. 4, 2023. Image credit: Bridget Bennett/Bloomberg/Getty Images

The Facts

A Gamers Nexus investigation published Monday, carried out with Level1Techs and independent security researchers, reported that retail LG OLED televisions logged and uploaded data about owners and their homes, including while offline or in standby.
TNW
Ynet
Verge
Gamers Nexus on Youtube
LG said the claims in the video are not true, telling Tom's Hardware on Wednesday that its TVs process voice data only when the remote's voice button is held or when a wake word such as "Hi LG" is recognized after a user enables Far-Field voice recognition.
The Register
The Times (UK)
Tom's Hardware
Editor-in-chief Steve Burke said the team spent roughly 500 hours and $70,000 on the project, and reported retrieving plain text transcriptions of voice inputs and recordings from a microphone and webcam while the TV appeared to be off.
Mario Nawfal on X
The Register
News.com.au
Researchers said the televisions repeatedly scanned local networks for unrelated hardware such as phones, printers, smartwatches and thermostats, and logged internal IP addresses, nearby Wi-Fi network names, signal strength and geolocation data.
Futurism
Ynet
LG confirmed its TVs can scan for and connect to nearby devices on the same network, describing it as a standard function of smart TVs and smart home devices, and said Automatic Content Recognition is offered on an opt-in basis.
CyberSecurityNews
TechRadar
The Times (UK)
The team also reported remote-code-execution vulnerabilities that remain under responsible disclosure and advised disconnecting LG smart TVs from networks. Malwarebytes recommends installing firmware updates and disabling ACR.
Independent
International Business Times

Sources Split

LEFT

CENTER

RIGHT

ESTAB
CRIT

CENTER

PRO
ESTAB

The Spin

Narrative A

A television that samples what's on screen, logs nearby Wi-Fi networks and catalogs every phone, printer and speaker on the home network is a surveillance device sold as entertainment. Researchers showed a compromised set capturing audio while it appeared off, and even stashing it until the connection returned. Bragging to advertisers about owning the glass says everything about who the customer really is.

TechRadar

Malwarebytes

Narrative B

The eavesdropping panic falls apart under scrutiny. LG TVs only handle voice data when the remote's mic button is held or a wake word is spoken, and unrecognized audio is deleted locally without ever reaching a server. Scanning for nearby devices is standard on every smart TV, and anyone uneasy about ad tracking can switch Live Plus off in a few taps.