LG smart TVs caught logging audio with screen off and snooping on local devices

[Redaktion]

An investigation by Gamers Nexus found LG smart TVs sweep local networks to map phones and nearby devices. Tests also showed the sets can capture microphone audio with the screen off — they then upload data once reconnected to the internet.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/LG-smart-TVs-caught-logging-audio-with-screen-off-and-snooping-on-local-devices.1391214.0.html

[Rarxcat]

I actually tried using an external device but the external streamer was so much worse, it actually started sharing my internet as an end point. Definitely not something you'd want to go in blind.

[citral]

Yeah, kind of obvious but good that they make the masses aware and public shame them.

Personally I never connected mine, I use an Android tv box that is segregated on a "garbage iot" vlan that can't see my other devices, behind adguard that blocks some of what it tries to phone home. Not perfect but lesser evil.

[That guy]

Yeah, kind of obvious but good that they make the masses aware and public shame them.

Personally I never connected mine, I use an Android tv box that is segregated on a "garbage iot" vlan that can't see my other devices, behind adguard that blocks some of what it tries to phone home. Not perfect but lesser evil.

Blocking a few ads huh? why bother? You have WiFi in your home? they know bud period no rebuttal, block ur ads a feel private tho ....

[sigh]

Paying for big brother, great glass but man. Just use a reputable android box, if you can afford it a mini PC.

[Philip Lindsay]

This is why I don't plug an ethernet cable into my TVs or connect them to wifi.

I just connect an Apple TV to the HDMI and use that.

No tracking to worry about.

[Rossi]

Incoming stern words for LG. I hope they survive the negative media attention for 3 days while they continue to run spy devices for dumb ads for sh** people don't want. If the courts get involved the fines could reach into the 100's maybe even as high as $200 and a packet of crisps.

[The Yar]

I assume the listening is for voice activation or Alexa integration. The local network phone mapping is to find phones that can be used as remotes. This story was just waiting for someone to write, but I doubt there's anything here.

[Corvaxus]

This is a known feature that is not hidden which is not automatically turned on by default.

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.

[Bob Jansen]

Paying for big brother, great glass but man. Just use a reputable android box, if you can afford it a mini PC.

Little did you know that those android tv boxes have been being used globally for botnet ddos attacks.  They're malware devices that provide user benefits in exchange.

[Ken Settle]

I have two of these TVs, but since I always read the End User License Agreements (which spell out what you're agreeing to, and you have no choice but to agree or return the TV), I have never connected either of those TVs to the Internet. As long as they couldn't hack their way into a Wi-Fi network (mine or a neighbor's), then they have never been online.

Our phones and smart watches are already doing similar things, but that's the price that we pay for our technology. We give up our privacy, one click at a time. Nearly every website wants to install hundreds of tracking cookies. Before too long it will be thousands.

Unless something changes, in 10 years, those license agreements that we have to accept will take 10 hours or more to read (some of them already take more than an hour). I recently signed up with a website that had 10 agreements that overall took more than an hour to read. One click accepts them all.