Earlier this week, Gamers Nexus, Level1Techs, and independent security researchers detailed some alarming findings about how LG’s TVs are logging and uploading data on its users. Now the company is pushing back against those allegations, saying that “Some recent media coverage may have contributed to misconceptions about how LG smart TVs work.”
LG released a statement in which it claims that its “TVs do not continuously record or transmit users’ conversations,” and that wake-word detection is all processed locally. However, the word “continuously” is doing a lot of heavy lifting here as Gamers Nexus demonstrated an LG TV keeping extensive logs of ambient conversations long after one would assume its AI assistant had stopped listening.
Will these TVs throw an error if the Wi-Fi chip ihas been physically removed?
I’m taking apart a thousand tvs, but never bothered fooling around with the Wi-Fi boards… Never felt I had a reason until these days.
“allegations”? the thing they state to do to in their EULA, privacy agrement and whatcer other garbage no one reads? what else now? google spies on you? apple spies on you? water is wet?
Hearing about it is one thing. Seeing someone put it to the test and showing the extent of the surveillance and data harvesting is another.
I have an LG tv and I use the Prime streaming app. I recently started working out after about a year of not. Never googled anything or told anyone or anything, just said out loud to myself to get out my floor mat for pushups and whatnot, and not just use my rug. The very next day, I’m suddenly getting Kachava ads on Prime again, which is a healthy liquid meal thing.
North Korea must be having a field day talking about what it sees as Southern chaebol capitalism hypocrisy.
Darn, they are better at mass surveillance than we are. Damn oligarchic capitalism.
So, their fix for spying is gaslighting?
Always has been.
They’re not trying to fix the spying, they’re trying to fix the accountability.
We investigated ourselves and found no wrong doing.
“Nuh-uh” - LG
Are there any affordable TVs with 4K with good features without spying with Nexflix & Disney Apps?
Most of the things I’ve seen basically say ‘no’.
There are commercial displays that don’t have spyware / connectivity, but they tend to have significantly lower refresh rates / HDR / etc. even if they are 4k. And they’re several times the price of consumer TVs, at least in part because they aren’t being subsidized by selling them at a loss to make money on ads.
Unfortunately, it’s either this or get a smart TV and never connect it to the internet and use a streaming device or computer. However with the computer option, some platforms like Netflix won’t let you stream 4K without meeting their strict requirements.
Or just become a pirate and never deal with streaming services again.
No. Everything is spying. Look at what Gamers Nexus said LG makes more money selling data then selling TVs.
They’re adding a forced arbitration clause to their upcoming ToS, clearly the actions of innocent people
Luckily forced arbitration is not legal in the EU.
Because it’s a civilized place not whatever the USA is
I don’t dispute that, but can you point to the relevant law?
TL;DW: LG is using very weasely wording to misrepresent what they’re doing, and GN calls their bluff (with data and receipts)
Yet another company going “NO WE DIDN’T”, expecting us to believe.
Gamers Nexus: We’ve documented the entire process. There’s irrefutable proof demonstrating that your TVs log conversations.
LG: Nuh-uh.
One thing I think a lot of people tend to miss when dealing with executive interviews, PR statements, and company advertising is that often times how a company defines a given term and how the actual dictionary and everyone in the world defines that term are not the same thing unless it is legally required.
Textbook examples:
Telsa, Musk, and self driving: Musk and Tesla define it as essentially what everyone else called lane assist. Then they have “full self driving” for what is supposed to be the thing everyone else would think of as self driving.
OpenAI, Sam Altman, and AGI (artificial general intelligence): No one in the AI industry has an agreed upon definition of what AGI even means. The AI labs just throw it out there for hype and funding rounds and tweak the meaning to them as they need. To most normal people I would suspect AGI means “a machine that knows its a machine and is at least as smart as the average person”.
Point being when LG says “ its TVs do not continuously record or transmit users’ conversations,” that can mean literally anything they can twist human communication methods to mean in their specific context. And it is usually the one that makes them the most money.
“its TVs do not continuously record or transmit users’ conversations”
Because we all know voice activation isn’t a thing…
It’s not continuous if certain things have to happen for it to start…
at least as smart as the average person.
Ooooh. So that’s why they’re eroding public education: to make AGI achievable sooner!
PR statements always make me think of the sample sentence “I never said you did that,” which can have different implications depending on which word is emphasized.
It’s time we all start speaking lojban.
After the recent controversies, I added a bunch of blockers for LG trackers to my pi-hole, to stop my 8 year old TV from collecting data. It blocked a lot at first, but then suddenly nothing, I investigated a bit and saw that it had started sending only to their Vietnamese servers, which were missing from my blocklist.
Make sure you block all regions!
It might help a few people if you shared the domains you blocked.
I looked up the domains registered by logitech electronics and logitech corp.
Blocked the hell out of those.In case anyone is interested: https://github.com/Appoxo/Ad-Spam-Blocklist/blob/master/hosts.txt
Forgive me for using GitHub
Are Logitech involved in this too?
Not sure what Logitech has to do with it?
But sure, block their spyware too (logi+ options)I looked up the domains registered by logitech electronics and logitech corp.
Blocked the hell out of those.Sorry, you brought them up.
“Logitech Electronics”. Autocorrect?
No, brainfart ;)
If they were actually wrong about anything, LG would be suing the pants off them right now.
Instead LG are “debunking” claims that weren’t actually made.
Exactly this.
If any of GN’s claims were false, it’d be a very serious case of false allegations. LG could easily sue them, win quickly, get a couple million dollars in damages, and more.
The fact that they’re not suing tells us all we need to know.
Yeah, even then lots of times courts are used in asymmetrical economic situations against the smaller party so not always a tell with shitty actors.
“We own the glass” is enough for me to never buy an LG again. I own two never contacted to the internet, but Jesus that’s gross.
I suspect all the smart TVs are doing it to similar levels.
Buy a dumb Tv
BTW I see the “but a dumb tv” advice, but what are some dumb tvs in 2026?
I only see smart TVs in store, and I know the side I’d look for signage TVs but I don’t know if they have good audio with a sound bar, or good colour presentation.
Look at commercial displays, like the ones used in retail environments and digital signage.
They are built to last and the smart features are an seperate module.
