Not only can they listen in. You have a contractual requirement to tell everyone in range of an appliance that they may be eavesdropped upon.

CONSENT REQUIREMENT: You acknowledge and agree that it is your sole responsibility to obtain all necessary consents from any third parties whose voices may be captured by the Product and to notify household members and guests that their voices may be captured and processed, in compliance with applicable wiretapping, eavesdropping, and privacy laws. If anyone does not consent, you should disable the microphone or voice features in the settings. LGE disclaims any liability for your failure to obtain such consent or provide such notification.

[1] https://www.lg.com/us/terms

In the previous topic I got ridiculed for not wanting to buy LG anymore because I could use an agent to modify to strip out the offending bits.

But there must be something better than just keeping to buy things that invade our privacy and homes further and further. Which brands aren’t doing this? Sony? They also announced a partnership for the lower end TVs IIRC.

Theoretically I could see LG or even the TV's owner being culpable.

I'd love to see that case hit the media. Average citizen jailed over wiretap violations because they let their TV record a guest.

The TV has multiple mics that can't be disabled, they constantly record everything and upload transcripts in plain text.

It gathers data and metadata of all devices on the network, including IP addresses. And even analyzes network data to understand which applications are being run.

I have two LG TVs so this freaks me out a lot. I guess I’m fortunate to have kept their network permanently disconnected (we use Apple TV for smart stuff) but who knows if they don’t do things like scan for open hotspots or connect without permission to networks you previously used to update firmware and then deleted from history.

This company needs to be nuked from orbit. Automatic content recognition is one thing, spying on conversations when switched off is a whole other level of violation.

Just imagine having to jam the devices in your own home just to stop them from profiling you.

Better pray to your deer god that modem + data contract is gonna stay more expensive that the expected value from selling more data...

We really need regulation to stop this.

War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. [1]

Would you like to know more?

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telescreen

Although I’m glad this is getting the visibility it deserves. I hope this hurts LG where it matters and sends a signal to other manufacturers, but I doubt it.

DNS lookups are redirected or blocked (53 redirected to my local DNS resolver, 853 blocked), and DoH is blocked as best effort though it's hard to block HTTP DNS traffic, which again is why the devices are blocked in the firewall.

All streaming is done via AppleTV, which is a platform I trust infinitely more than LG/Samsung/whatever.

E.g. As soon as someone proves LG, Samsung, etc. recorded and stored credit card details and knowingly have weak security this is going to be a massive business liability.

That's an easy one to put a compensation figure on but there's probably all sorts of other exploits waiting to happen.

I think the most egregious thing here is that if you don't give the TV a network connection that it will actively search for other ways to get the data back to LG such as open WIFI.

1. The Ad data-collecting platform TV-manufacturers are operating, what data they collect and how they use it.

2. The vulnerabilities of the OS in a SmartTV, and the potential issues to exploit them for malicious purposes.

3. The general behavior of the device when connected to your network, with features like voice control, App control, Smart Home etc. enabled, and how it may expose information about yourself.

All the points and scenarios in the video might be valid, but they are not sufficiently grouped into one of the above categories.

Instead, it just mixes them all together to imply that its all the same, weakening the whole investigation.

--

The plain example: Using voice-input for a web-search on the TV [0], make long pauses and observe how it keeps populating the prompt-UI with everything you say. This is a matter of #3 above, accusing a malicious intent already on such a trivial implementation topic is harming the whole story

[0] https://youtu.be/6IFVTcM28KA?si=oVqX6NtkxPmqh6R-&t=2951

  > OpenLGTV[1] is a collective, non-commercial project for legal reverse engineering and research of LG (Smart and non Smart) TVs firmware, which is partially Open Source.
  > The main goal of the project is to improve the functionality of the TVs by adding new features, fixing bugs and providing new software.

I couldn't find any "smoking gun" or discovery of malicious intent.

What's left in the end is the already-known fact in the tech-community: The most-common, most-vulnerable and most-equipped device to spy on you in your home is your Smart-TV.

1. It has all the compute-power and sensors it needs

2. It already does some spying for ad-profiling

3. If a hacker exploits it, it's a problem

It can't just magically connect to an openwifi and update its firmware to start telemetry. It would need a new firmware to even try that.

Folks, never update a TV firmware unless it's necessary.

My LG tv post-update is never allowed on a network and it will never be updated again. Hopefully it never breaks…

Much to my surprise I found out that many modern TVs do in fact come with dev mode that allow some sort of screen capture.

Safe to say I turned off all the "allow metrics and market/dev modes" and have been happier since.

EDIT> Incase anyone was wondering I did some more research about my model ( im NOT a TV guy ) and came across this regarding what screen content could technically be passed remotely: "Most probable raw grab: ThinQ/SSAP on the LAN after pairing — ~960×540 JPEG. Live Plus/ACR: most probably sends a fingerprint, not a retrievable raw frame." No idea what it means but thought it might be relevant. Remember Im saying in my case it was a coincidence.

examine your network when you plug a roku in. then read their privacy policy if you want to see someone give LG a run for their money.

then there's our pocket PCs...

and don't forget about the biggest customers of this "advertising" data.

https://www.npr.org/2026/03/25/nx-s1-5752369/ice-surveillanc...

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/03/targeted-advertising-g...

They also found where the microphone was software disabled via settings, it was STILL recording things but had the dB level so low that it looked like nothing but when amplified to +50dB later the conversations were actually still there.

I'm pretty sure that these TVs won't respect WIFI passwords and if you enter a wifi password in once, it will just remember it even when you clear it, and it will try to connect to the internet that way.

LG TVs aren't the only ones spying on you [video]

https://smackernews.com/item/49575176 HN

There's also a fair bit of arrogance from LG: "We own the glass..." leading to this great piece of marketing:

"within an LG TV household we can help extend the ad campaign footprint to the other devices in the household" (at ~14:11)

Advertising is a mind virus. These people are fucking gross. And this seems to be what all technology companies are turning into. Advertising is the Paperclip Maximiser of the real world.

I recently divided much of my home network into VLANs (with "Entertainment" devices separated for this very reason), and this makes me happy to have done so, but now makes me want to do the same to my in-laws network, since they have an LG TV and I regularly connect various of my devices through their network...

Tangential point: I recall on a previous article someone commenting on their surprise at how good Gamers Nexus investigative reporting was. This seems to be another example. You go Gamers Nexus. Might have to buy a supporter pack.

My LG is completely offline and I'm using an nvidia shield to display any content, but I'm thinking maybe I need to go the extra mile, there nothing preventing an android tv box to do the same.

But I am also practically certain, that, eventually, any pile of data will attract ideas you do not want attracted.

It seems pretty safe. When it's on, I can ssh into it. When it's off, it doesn't reply to ICMP pings, and doesn't appear to be using much power.

I guess the newer LG TVs have gone to shit.

I just didn't want to buy any TV that was available 8 years ago because they all seemed invasive to me.

I hope someone uses their free time to hack the OS and offer a clean and simple interface to make it a “dumb” TV.

I don’t really watch tv, but my wife would want something somewhat modern.

Or what I am trying to say: Everybody has devices which have the potential to spy on you.

Unless your first name is Richard, only travel with open source hardware and software, and you have to ask someone to lend you a phone if you want to call someone even when you are at home.

https://samba.com/

But they stopped updating it years ago, none of its apps work anymore and the only "smart" feature that still works is screen mirroring feature. The tv part itself still works great. Not a 4k oled 120Hz shiny impressive thing but the image quality is still great. What I thought was an unlucky adquisition back then turned out to be a pretty good one.

Can anyone recommend a non-spying TV brand or a model? (Modern)

Even if the manufacturer doesn't do something evil, they may have an exploit or allow 3rd party apps that do whatever

Garmin literally keeps the microphone on 24/7 listening for "OKAY GARMIN"

There should be a consumer law that any device with a microphone must have an LED physically in series so that if the mic has power, the LED is lit, not software control of the LED which can be disabled. Europe might do that someday but unless California does it too it will never happen in USA

Not long until companies partner with Amazon and others to send traffic automatically through their near-by devices like smart speakers, disconnecting will be impossible.

Not surprised if this is happening already. I don't want to remove radios out my TV..

Samba, a media intelligence company have several partnerships with manufacturers to take screenshots and collect metadata.

Viewer analytics are valuable to companies like Samba, they aren't the only ones. Laws ASAP, these companies will lobby hard to stop anything of the sort.

A comparison of a dumb 4k panel vs the equivalent "smart" tv for example>

I always found that talking to computers is incredible stupid and only looks good in Star Trek. But I am apparently the minority in this because every car, phone and television has a voice activated interface.

There was scandal with Siri that lasted for about 5 minutes.

A lot of the "silent listening" they show in the video is on a TV they rooted. They start recordings through arecord manually. Or, when they show the transcripts from the recording, the AI voice search is clearly visible on the screen and was manually triggered by something.

Now, does a smart TV need all that hardware? Is a compromised TV a security hazard and smart TVs need to learn more in terms of security from modern smartphones in terms of privacy indicators, attested boot and more?

Sure.

But I do not see enough evidence that the TV is actually voice capturing all this stuff on its own, without any notice.

There is plenty of stuff on the video regarding the network scanning, ACR and more that is definitely concerning. And this is something LG actually does by themselves (when you agree to their ToS / privacy policy).

However, I think that mixing the ACR / network scanning in with "let's root the TV and actively start recording ourselves" mixes the narrative of "what LG actually does" versus "what a compromised TV can actually do", and makes it seem like LG is just recording, transcribing and submitting voice transcript automatically by themselves.

This was not proven here. And I feel that GamersNexus is just risking a lawsuit here by not separating these different concerns clear enough.

So, was realme transcribing all conversations and uploading it? Can someone answer?

Looked into rooting - my old firmware would be ideal, but other than a native ambient lighting tap I don't really see anything worth my time. That model probably doesn't have a wide field mic yet to use for home automation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8duCxY-gnZ0&t=5s

https://www.sceptre.com/TV/4K-UHD-TV-category1category73.htm...

With no real influx of 8K tvs one of these will last quite a while until you need to upgrade.

Nothing gets connected to wifi. If temporary connection is required it gets a random one time use guest network SSID and pass that I remove after. (Yes they can collect and send setup metadata during this temporary access period but sometimes it is a worthwhile tradeoff)

Do they make audiophile grade aluminum foil yet? Seems like a neat business opportunity for customers like me

You must set your TV to a different standby mode and enable LG voice control.

When you do this, it very plainly tells you that it can listen with the screen off so you can control the TV with voice.

Failure of User Awareness, not some nefarious spyware.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telescreen

PS: I do have the TV connected to wifi for software updates (on a pi.holed network)

Starting at 16:04, they say that they merely claim that the TV has the capability to be used as a listening device. In the first 34 minutes, they don't seem to show that LG are actually recording audio from the surroundings (only from the content playing) and after that they start investigating whether you could record audio if you take control of the device (obviously yes).

So the video doesn't seem to support the claim in the article (edit: linked in the merged submission!) that "LG smart TVs continuously [...] log microphone audio while appearing to be turned off".

Of course, all the stuff LG are actually shown to be doing is bad nevertheless, particularly the "Automated Content Recognition".

I know I’m not the only one so I’m sure LG are experiencing the results of consumer democracy.

Is there a DNS setting in LG? Could it be as simple as switching to a local DNS server on your network running nextdns.io?

It frequently happens when opening ChatGPT on web.

No network connection, apparently the BBC thinks I should use the LG app to watch UHD TV, perhaps they’re in league with LG

I have an LG. Great OLED panel. It's never seen the internet.

We have sugar-free, lactose free I want Smart free devices!!!

Just don't by anything from LG. It's easy.

The thing I'd like is if the remote didn't have 4 buttons for crappy streaming services I will never use, but instead had 4 buttons to select the HDMI inputs directly; but no, I have to press a button, wait for the stupid laggy UI to load, navigate or point and click at input I want, then do the same to the preview window. A tedious pain in arse for basically the one main thing I use the remote for. It annoys me no end, and it seems to me that the last thing LG care about is the UX; they've put all their efforts into underhand and user-hostile profiling.

I also have a Roku Ultra for streaming, which I very rarely use. I don't expect they treat their users any better and they use ACR too

And many government officials' households, too.

Just saying.

should we all report this illegal behaviour and contract terms?

The choice between privacy concerns and ineptly coded network stack is tough. But that's the choice we're forced to have

We value your privacy

Shares my browsing info with 1745 "partners" with no clear way to opt out (which ought to be opt-in by the way to be compliant with ePrivacy and GDPR).

10+ years later, this is their response. They have learned a large majority of people just don't give a shit. We are sheep. A majority of people just want "cheap" shit, no matter the cost.

This world is cooked man. Need an asteroid to wipe this planet clean, bro.

Welp, looks like it is a fact.

How disrespectful one can be towards its customers. I am honestly disgusted by such behaviour. I know the cheeky confidence biz talk, but is that really what you want your customers to hear? And what about the guys making such disgusting business possible. Is that what you want to build?

But I guess they still sell my data. I wish they would flag the data of rational people like me as "worthless", and not sell my data.

The snakes in charge of this should be thrown in jail. They talk about "owning the glass and the living room" and you can just tell they've sold out their soul long ago.

Vizio TVs were caught taking screen grabs and phoning those home years ago.

I want the public to get upset about this.

Also, can anyone articulate exactly what data the TV is scraping about your other network devices? IP, name, what else?

The enshittification of TV ownership and usage through smart TVs and the apps and other software that runs without user knowledge is a huge problem wherever these devices are sold. The TVs track and log every device on owner networks - smart watches, thermostats, smart phones, etc, anything that uses wireless or that accesses the internet from inside the home.

I am so glad that I have avoided "upgrading" our TV, almost montly, for years now by simply sending all the Best Buy texts to spam or deleting them. The best way is to opt out of Best Buy communications and after watching that video I will do that.

Our TV is a Panasonic plasma TV from 2012. I need to exit the last streaming service that we subscribe with and that will get it set to an OTA device used when weather int he area is bad enough that having that real-time local weather channel adds value.

From the video - RCE vulnerabilities could allow anyone to drop code on your TV that enables them to use it as a surveillance device. Lots of microphones in the device and no way for the user to disable them. The TV is listening all the time and, using the very sensitive microphones, can detect and record voices in conversations happening in other rooms more than 60' distant. They are effectively whole-house listening devices probably using MEMS microphones due to excellent sensitivity of the devices. Users are fingerprinted and everyone in the house can be identified, even children and those who are frequent enough guests to have been ID'd. Everything that happens triggers the recording.

I suspect Amazon's and Google's devices were the same with their voice triggers. LG does not allow the user to disable that functionality even after the user has disabled it (apparently) through the deeply buried menu option.

LG pushes updates to TVs that improve the tracking ability for LG and their "partners", which includes Microsoft through MS's ownership of Nuance. LG tried to separate their data collection/advert business to circumvent restrictions on ...

Man there is so much there. Fortunately the only LG product I own is a dumb monitor. I will be contacting relatives to offer advice about what to do with their smart devices, LG or others, so I know this starts another round of investigation for me.

No Samsung or LG at my house. Almost done canceling subscription-based "services" like TV content and gaming (XBox) stuff. I don't have software subscriptions so that's great. And, I should be finished with MS OSes pretty soon and flipped to Linux on new devices.

A lot of the shit and shit infrastructure that some of you build is destructive. One day, you will get your just desserts after shafting people with Binding Arbitration agreements, huge TOS and Privacy Policies, and other types of enshittifying end results.

Nothing is going to change until people are that enraged by it.

Guess I'm not buying LG anything

During bench tests, they found the TV could capture clean microphone audio while the screen was (or at least looked to be) powered down in standby mode. When the team disconnected the TV from Ethernet, the set continued saving voice input locally and uploaded the stored files once network access was restored.

Lawyers: If it is true that the company is secretly recording voices when the device appears to be off, and then uploading the recordings, does that sound like a felony in many US states?

(And a felony that is bumping into different laws than the "unauthorized computer access" ones that tech industry has been getting leeway with?)

It must be eradicated.

Do everything in your power to destroy these companies and their immoral business practices.

Are there really that many people technical enough to know what an HDMI cable is without also knowing all TVs are subsidized by spyware with no security protections?

Why would anyone connect a screen to the internet in the first place?

Like, if suddenly computer monitors started asking for wifi credentials would everyone just compulsively punch them in just to see ads and give the manufacturers lots of data just because?

I must be fundamentally disconnected from how consumers think about technology.

But we're allowing 1000x worse things, because what, there's a vague line about it buried deep in some EULA, which means laws no longer apply?

Lets treat them the same. Raid LG, seize all of their electronics, at least in the US (other countries are encouraged to do their own raids), arrest the executives, and after they're all in jail, and digital forensics are poring over their products and servers to find what else they did, they can argue in court how actually all these crimes are legal.

It's only fair.