216M Spy TVs – The LG Smart TV Problem [video]

Here are LG's contract terms for appliances.[1] They are awful.

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.

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

I've bought an LG Smart TV 5 years ago, read t&c where I was supposed to grant them any data they wanted, decided to disagree and kept all network functions disabled. I was ridiculed by my friends for that. At some point, I thought - maybe I'm really crazy to do so? Who am I, a caveman, a luddite? Oh well, I'm not. Not a bad tv though, many HDMI ports!

Okay. This is insane. First the monitor that uses a windows feature to automatically install a small helper tool with root permissions and then starts showing adds in certain regions. Now a tv that is actually actively snooping around on top of the known fingerprinting. What else is next?

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.

I'm surprised this hasn't run afoul of all-party wiretap laws. Even if you could waive your own rights via ToS other people in the house may not have agreed.

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 title undersells it.

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.

As an owner of 2 LG OLEDs, I am not surprised at all. I neutered these things the first day I was past the return policy. Opened the back and unplugged the WiFi/BT chip, bought a cheap dumb universal remote with no mic in it, disagreed to all T&C in the TV, updated the firmware via USB and just use an AppleTV over HDMI for streaming. Kind of silly to have to go through all of this but hey thats where we are in 2026 in the US. And I am fully aware that I am typing this on an iPhone thats probably doing the same things that this article is talking about LG doing ;-(

The source video is excellent: https://youtu.be/6IFVTcM28KA

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.

Funny, published on a site with 1745 'partners' who fully respect our privacy of course

Modems becoming super cheap is gonna be a big problem for this, because those make it even harder to prevent such snooping.

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.

Telescreens [1] are here!

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

Would you like to know more?

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