Posted on 09/07/2026 5:30:12 PM PDT by Red Badger
If you've got an Apple TV set-top box, that's not enough to protect your privacy if you have an LG television. Unplug Ethernet and tell it to forget your Wi-Fi information.
Smart televisions have a history of being a privacy problem for users. Repeated reports have surfaced over the years about them logging how you use the television, as well as misusing sensors intended to monitor the viewers.
In a September investigation by Gamers Nexus posted to YouTube, LG's smart TVs still continue to be a privacy nightmare. It's pretty bad, given that some models are capable of eavesdropping on your conversations.
Working with security researchers and Level1Techs, the lengthy video put LG OLED televisions under a microscope. Using various tools, including capturing packets with Wireshark, it was found to be conducting a wide array of actions that disregard user privacy, and then sending that data back to LG.
An ad problem
The LG televisions have a function to feed advertising personalized to the user through the smart TV interface. While you can expect that the software can pick up on usage habits to fuel the advertising machine, LG's system goes beyond mere interactions.
As previously discussed, smart TVs also use technology referred to as Automatic Content Recognition, or ACR. Not satisfied with knowing the name of a show or a channel being watched, the feature instead snapshots the screen or audio bytes, which are then analyzed by external servers.
However, it also collects data from the users themselves. Using microphones as part of the setup, such as the one in remote controls, it is capable of recording and transcribing conversations.
Again, these snippets can be sent over to LG Ad Solutions for marketing purposes. That LG arm says it has data from 216 million LG smart TVs around the world, including 49 million in the United States.
That's bad enough. But, as always, it gets worse.
A security nightmare
While the collection of usage data is one thing, the research uncovered many different areas where the tested TVs captured data that probed a little too deep into the user's private life. This included:
Plaintext transcripts of conversations containing sensitive information that are unconnected to active TV use, namely speech that wasn't a verbal command
Snippets of audio recorded by the TV
Recording using a connected webcam
Recording while the TV appeared to be turned off
Crawling the user's network for devices
Determining the TV's geographic location
Wi-Fi signal strength and channel numbers of nearby networks within range
During testing, the crew was able to see that the smart TV is actively scanning the local network for other hardware. This can include other LG hardware, but also other items like smartphones and smartwatches.
This network snooping also extends to determining the strength of nearby Wi-Fi networks and the accompanying network data.
More troubling is the microphone usage. During testing, the team discovered that the television was able to capture audio from a microphone, even when it was seemingly in standby mode.
That data could be accessed remotely, but it was stored locally when disconnected from the network. When reconnected, the audio was uploaded once more.
Even worse, vulnerabilities in webOS, LG's choice of operating system, allowed the team to pull the audio data and listen in. This effectively makes the smart TV a potential snooping device to a bad actor.
Testing also indicated it didn't necessarily need to just use any included microphones for monitoring. When using a display as a computer monitor, it was capable of getting audio from a connected webcam.
This data was also found to be transcribed to plaintext in memory. Test phrases such as "LG my social security number is..." and "My credit card information" were found in logs.
Make your smart TV dumb now
While the vulnerabilities are being worked on by LG, its practices of capturing user audio and slurping tons of data for remote analysis is a big problem. It's also one that is extremely widespread, since LG's ad features have been around for years.
It's also a process that can't be stopped by simply not using the smart TV functionality. Even if you primarily use an Apple TV with the TV, the same spying elements will be at play.
The only real way to stop this is to make the TV element dumb. You have to both disconnect the physical Ethernet connection if it's hooked up, and turn off the Wi-Fi through the TV's settings.
If you're adept enough at managing your home router, you can block connections at a network level with some firewall rules. This will certainly help if you have multiple LG televisions at home or in an office, as it will cut the connection even for screens you can't directly access.
Even then, it's still going to be locally storing snippets of its snooping data.
While users are seemingly able to tolerate usage-based snooping with little in the way of issues, discovering that audio is being captured and shared in such a blatantly insecure manner is a big problem that needs addressing.
It should've been addressed years ago. But until the public is appalled enough by the snooping possibilities, or the snooping isn't financially worth it to LG, it will continue to be an issue.
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Ping!..............
Who didn’t know to shut all of the privacy issues down on smart tvs - years ago?
And since when is Apple a privacy hero!!?? Ha! That’s a joke!
In America, TV watches you.
Lucky Goldstar ain’t feeling so lucky.
I have an LG TV. I like that I can watch youtube videos on it. Maybe I’m naive but I’m not gonna worry about a knock on my door...unless,of couse,we get a President Antonia Ocasio Cortez or something like that.
We have all LG appliances except TV.
Stove, Microwave, Refrigerator, Washer, Dryer, Dishwasher.
The Dishwasher has WiFi.
The Refrigerator has WiFi.
They are conspiring against us...............
I was looking to tape over my newest TV’s microphone.
It uses the speakers as a microphone, apparently.
Got a 75” in the living room.
No ethernet connection, no wifi connection.
It probably feels lonely.
They all spy anymore. Disconnect them.
Then there are the phones....
No you’re not paranoid. They are spying on you
Personally, I believe Amazon and Walmart know more about you than the government does.
It will be shear luck if they find enough bytes to do anything nefarious with.
Just accept that the web is totally unsecure, because it is. Someone is able to read every keystroke you make. Whether or not you are even in the room,
...all a sudden there are microphones and cameras on everything and people are cheering?!
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
~~Donald Trump
I was looking to tape over my newest TV’s microphone.
It uses the speakers as a microphone, apparently.
*********************
Would not surprise me.
“Disconnect them.”
Turn your TV on.
If you have a smartphone, go outside your door and have it scan for WiFi connections.
Your TV should show up...............
I guess if you watch porn or something it might be an issue. If someone wanted to spy on what I am watching they would be extremely bored.
They’re not.
This is from Apple Insider, not Apple.
Billions upon billions are being spent on advertising that spies on us. Orders of magnitude more than network or cable or satellite television or radio ever imagined. Now we have to put up with invasion of privacy or foil it. How can it be worth all the monet being spent? Are people buying orders of magnitude more products just based on the power of suggestion?
I can honestly say I never buy anything for myself that is simply wanted, only necessary. Unfortunately, I even keep things when they are worn out.
We have one that is over ten years old. Hmmmmmmmm!
A fellow who knows told me years ago that if you don’t want something heard don’t ever say it around a phone.
Military grade secure rooms are faraday cages and phones or other bluegum or wifi are not allowed near.
One of the commenters at the site said he found a SIM Card in his new TV, which may or may not mean that it was connected to the cellphone system..........
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