- LG TVs reportedly monitor your entire home, not just your viewing
- The report says TVs can capture audio when the screen's off
- Invasive monitoring may be widespread across manufacturers
Update: LG has provided a statement about the reports below, which we've provided in full here:
"This is to provide LG's position regarding the claims recently raised by the Gamers Nexus YouTube channel.
The claims made in the recently published video are not true. LG TVs process voice data only when the voice button on the remote control is pressed and held, or when a wake word such as "Hi LG" is recognised after the user has activated the Far-Field voice recognition feature. Other than these instances, the TVs do not collect or record ambient conversations. If the wake word is not recognised, no voice data is transmitted to the server; wake word detection is processed locally on the device and immediately deleted.
Additionally, to provide smart TV functionalities, LG TVs feature the ability to scan for and connect to nearby devices on the same network. This is a standard function commonly available on smart TVs and smart home devices.
The ACR (Automatic Content Recognition) feature is provided on an opt-in basis to deliver personalised content recommendations, services, and advertisements. If a user does not consent to the applicable optional agreement, ACR data is not used for advertising purposes."
The original story continues below:
LG is at the center of another online privacy storm focusing on its smart TVs. A new investigation by Gamers Nexus and independent security researchers, detailed in full in 135-minute YouTube embedded below, says that LG TVs are tracking "everybody in the household" — even when the TVs appear to be off, or unplugged from your local network. And they're looking at your other devices too.
The result, Gamers Nexus says, is "216,000,000 Spy TVs" reporting on millions of other devices in the US alone.
The report comes just over a month after LG was accused of installing adware on PCs and recording guests in your home, claims that LG refuted in a statement. However, this new report could be even more damaging because LG's own marketing pitch to businesses says that "we know who's in the LG household. We know which devices are there. We know what you're exposed to on TV and we know how to extend that reach into mobile."
The Gamers Nexus video features clips of three separate LG executives saying either "We own the glass", "we own the TV", or both.
What does "we own the glass" mean?
The "we own the glass" is a pitch to advertising buyers, and it's based on ACR, aka Automatic Content Recognition. That's the controversial system that analyzes what you watch on TV irrespective of what app or service you use, collating that data to be used for personalized marketing.
Gamers Nexus says that LG TVs gather much more than viewing data, including voice recordings, details of other local devices, geographical location and details of nearby wireless networks.
LG's sales pitch is that LG advertising can give marketers the big picture of everything you and I do on our TVs — and extend advertising from the LG TV to other devices, such as our phones: "within an LG household, we can help extend [an advertising] campaign footprint to the other devices in the household."
It's a very long and detailed video, but the key claims here are that LG TVs' advertising functionality goes much further than you might know or expect, and that it goes so far and gathers so much data that it becomes "intrusive and grotesque".
And as Gamers Nexus note at the end of the video, they're certain that other manufacturers are doing much the same. "If you want Flock cameras on your living room wall, this is how you get Flock cameras on your living room wall," they say.
The online reaction so far is primarily outrage: writing on r/gadgets, grahag says: "Every appliance in my house is an LG... I will never buy an LG product again" while BirnirG says "I hope nobody will buy their products after this... if I buy your product I own it, they don't 'own the glass' or anything any more." Another Redditor summed it up as simply as "It's extremely creepy."
As we've noted before, TV margins are very tight and manufacturers are increasingly turning to advertising in order to bring in more money. But there are growing concerns that firms are not doing this with customers' consent, and that changes to data use are buried in new versions of the T&Cs or privacy policies that nobody ever reads.
We have, of course, approached LG for comment and we'll keep you updated.
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