LG Responds to TV Spying Allegations (theverge.com) 123
LG is pushing back against reports that its smart TVs are "spying" on users, saying wake-word detection happens locally and that features such as Automatic Content Recognition, voice recognition, and interest-based ads are optional. But critics note that researchers found TVs keeping logs of ambient conversations, and LG's response "did not address broader concerns about how much data it collects, who it shares it with, the potential for bad actors to exploit its features, or the misleading way in which its privacy options are presented," reports The Verge. Here's an excerpt from LG's statement: Some recent media coverage may have contributed to misconceptions about how LG smart TVs work. As an industry leader, LG believes we have a responsibility to provide customers with clear and accurate information about how our smart TVs operate and the privacy controls available to them. We would like to clarify how our smart TVs operate and explain our approach to user privacy.
LG smart TVs do not continuously record or transmit users' conversations. Speech-to-text processing begins only if a user activates a voice interaction through a supported wake-word feature or by pressing the voice (or AI) button on the remote control. Audio used for wake-word detection is processed locally on the TV and, if no wake word is detected, audio is not converted to text, stored, or transmitted. Voice-recognition results and related technical logs may be generated as part of processing a voice command. These records are associated with specific voice interactions and do not indicate continuous recording of conversations occurring outside an active voice recognition session.
Speech-recognition results may be used to support voice-related features but are not uploaded later when the TV is offline or when connectivity is restored. Features such as Automatic Content Recognition (ACR), voice recognition, and interest-based advertising are optional. These features are not enabled by default. Users can choose to enable these features and can manage or withdraw consent through TV settings.
ACR uses audio fingerprinting technology using the TV's internal audio processor (not a speaker) to identify content and does not collect screenshots, screen recordings, video recordings, voice recordings, or other audio recordings from the TV. Where ACR is available and enabled, ACR-related information may be used for audience segmentation and viewing or audience trend analysis. Interest-based advertising and cross-device advertising require separate user consent through the applicable advertising-related agreements. Protecting user privacy is a fundamental principle in the design and operation of LG products and services. The statement goes on to "provide additional details on how LG smart TV features work, how information may be processed, what choices users have, and how LG continues to strengthen privacy, transparency, and security."
LG smart TVs do not continuously record or transmit users' conversations. Speech-to-text processing begins only if a user activates a voice interaction through a supported wake-word feature or by pressing the voice (or AI) button on the remote control. Audio used for wake-word detection is processed locally on the TV and, if no wake word is detected, audio is not converted to text, stored, or transmitted. Voice-recognition results and related technical logs may be generated as part of processing a voice command. These records are associated with specific voice interactions and do not indicate continuous recording of conversations occurring outside an active voice recognition session.
Speech-recognition results may be used to support voice-related features but are not uploaded later when the TV is offline or when connectivity is restored. Features such as Automatic Content Recognition (ACR), voice recognition, and interest-based advertising are optional. These features are not enabled by default. Users can choose to enable these features and can manage or withdraw consent through TV settings.
ACR uses audio fingerprinting technology using the TV's internal audio processor (not a speaker) to identify content and does not collect screenshots, screen recordings, video recordings, voice recordings, or other audio recordings from the TV. Where ACR is available and enabled, ACR-related information may be used for audience segmentation and viewing or audience trend analysis. Interest-based advertising and cross-device advertising require separate user consent through the applicable advertising-related agreements. Protecting user privacy is a fundamental principle in the design and operation of LG products and services. The statement goes on to "provide additional details on how LG smart TV features work, how information may be processed, what choices users have, and how LG continues to strengthen privacy, transparency, and security."
Their message is pretty simple (Score:3, Interesting)
Trust what we say, not what we do.
Re:Their message is pretty simple (Score:5, Informative)
Considering my LG TV just updated last week with a "no class action lawsuit" T&C clause, I'm pretty sure what they're saying is "yeah, we're screwing you, but we're hoping you accept these new T&C before you join a class."
Re:Their message is pretty simple (Score:5, Informative)
Not only did they add a "no class action lawsuit" clause, but they locked you out of all your already-downloaded smart tv apps like youtube until you did so.
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Without prior warning
Re: Their message is pretty simple (Score:2)
And if you think that wonâ(TM)t hold up in court in America, you have an American public school education.
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We are NOT the PRODUCT!
Re: Their message is pretty simple (Score:5, Informative)
I've pi-holed their update domains. Not planning to update anything any time soon.
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That will lock you out of using you tv smart features like disney+, netflix, etc as they will require updates to keep working. (we've already ran into with a different brand tv)
credibility (Score:5, Insightful)
I own 2 LG monitors and 2 LG Smart TVs, but next time, I'll be looking elsewhere.
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After the monitor adware debacle (which I experienced), I am disinclined to trust them on this.
I own 2 LG monitors and 2 LG Smart TVs, but next time, I'll be looking elsewhere.
I like my LG stuff. I'll just keep the TVs not connected to the internet, and behind AppleTVs. And, as an added bonus, I don't get LG's commercials.
Now if Apple starts doing shady shit like this I'll be truly screwed, but we're not there. Yet.
Re: credibility (Score:5, Informative)
If you have a neighbor with open WiFi, it can connect to it and send the spying data without your knowledge.
Even if you physically remove the built-in microphone the tv can still record you through other means.
That's some of the things the researchers found out.
The fix is to fully wrap your tv in foil to prevent the data to leave your house. The display will be hard to watch unfortunately.
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IIRC, even some of the "passworded" Xfinity routers will still let devices initiate a connection, some kind of semi-mesh network feature (they needed another product to sell).
It's web proxy, web scraping for AI training (Score:2)
These internet connected devices which allow for third-party app downloads are being used to crawl and index for AI training data, collect online shopping prices and more.
Not linking it here, there is a SDK which allows app developers to monetize the internet bandwidth of connected devices. The SDK runs on smart TV and other internet devices.
This is why Google has a captcha based block on web searches since there is a large effort to use other AI LLMs to get data to train another LLM.
A google for "web scra
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I have another fix. Turn off the TV, disconnect the power cable, and if possible, return to the seller. If not, grab a different manufacturer. Problem is finding a trustworthy one...
Re: credibility (Score:2)
Or this: https://vimeo.com/60821380 [vimeo.com]
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The fix is to
Not buy their products. And get rid of any you have.
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Does it have an internal cellular?
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Is this actually true? I watched both Gamer's Nexus videos and while they mention that LG TVs can for nearby wifi networks, probably so they can geo-locate you, they don't actually connect to them or use them. Doing so would be very, very illegal in many countries.
I hate to defend LG, but there is enough to hang on them here without what appear to be unfounded claims.
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It "can" does not mean it "does" ... yet. Part of the issue is that they definitely lost the trust of us the consumers.
IANAL but I feel that current activity probably breaches several laws such as the 1988 Video Privacy Protection Act and the later amendments: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
There are many issues with an EULA, for example most people do not really know what they accept, and the UI is designed to push you to accept everything. In many cases one household family member will accept the EULA,
Re: credibility (Score:2)
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So what's your solution for the McAfee adware, don't plug the monitor into your computer?
Running Linux almost works, but I bought this ultrawide for gaming, which still unfortunately means Windows.
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gpedit.msc -> Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Windows Update -> Manage updates offered from Windows Update -> Do not include drivers with Windows Updates = Enabled.
Nothing currently working will break, despite the dire warnings against blocking manufacturers' ability to push arbitrary code to your machine with zero warning or consent. And you can still install new drivers manual
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Some run through Proton, many don't, even some that are claimed to. You may want to take a closer look at those compatibility ratings.
Outer Worlds is listed as "Playable" on Steam, but cut scenes don't work. A story-driven RPG is not "playable" without cut scenes.
The "Verified" rating is what actually denotes a playable game. With those, you still often get graphical glitches and performance issues. Everspace 2 was definitely playable with Proton, micro-stuttering made the Windows version the clear preferen
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Otherwise the thing can connect to any open wifi, or a neighbors LG TV or smart washing machine or smart microwave and still spy on you. LG smart devices are really smart these days, unlike the buyers. They create an ad-hoc mesh network among themselves and will eventually find a way to still connect to the internet, all without your knowledge.
The only way is to open up the TV unit and physically disable the WiFi module with a soldering iron. If you really think you need the "smarts" in your TV in the futur
Re: credibility (Score:2)
HTPC arrrrrâ¦.
No spying possible if no camera & microphone (Score:2)
A TV can be full of useful features without camera and microphone. "Voice control" and "gesture control" are totally unnecessary "smart" features that are in fact dumb.
To cater with those who really want those dumb features, put camera and microphone under guard of physical on-off switch. When the switch is off, the camera and microphone output shall be blank and the OS shall see and hear black and silence.
Re:No spying possible if no camera & microphon (Score:5, Insightful)
Congrats you haven't eliminated the microphone. Modern TVs have microphones used for DSP to make their 5mm thick speakers sound passable. Also who says that the spying disappears when you get a TV without voice control or gesture control? You call these features "unnecessary", but the companies that make money selling your data consider them very necessary.
Also why would you trust the off switch? May as well take LG's word that they aren't spying. In fact if you follow the original story and watch the video you'll note that the LG TV very much does have a switch to switch off the microphone including an OS flag that the microphone is off. But which microphone? The mic in the TV is off, but what about the one in the smart remote? Also even with the TV mic off they were still able to recover speech from the mic. Turns out software muting was insufficient to actually mute the sound to the point where speech couldn't be not just recovered, but also people identified by voice. Thanks modern day low-noise 32bit ADCs.
The only thing you can do as a consumer is choose whom you trust.
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One option is to buy a commercial signage display [bhphotovideo.com] which are still more like "dumb" displays. While almost all of them now include an onboard player and automation features as well few if any will include a mic and camera.
Even then on these lines they can't pull the same shenanigans as the consumer market, these things touch corporate networks, trying to sneak out data will get you on a do not purchase list.
Or just accept a lot of people like and use these features or are indifferent so you can't avoid it,
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One option is to buy a commercial signage display [bhphotovideo.com] which are still more like "dumb" displays. "
That is overkill. Just buy whatever TV you want and never connect to it a network. I bought a high-end Samsung and have been enjoying it for years. It has never been connected to a network. And no, there is no "open"/insecure WiFi network in range of the TV. So if it is collecting anything, it doesn't matter. "Smart" stuff should be separate and replaceable. I have a non-networked blueray p
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Plenty of people, especially around here bemoan that there are no more dumb TVs and well, there are! It's just like most things in life there are drawbacks but there is a choice.
But if my last sentence didn't make it clear I agree, I have a Hisense TV. Very nice but I'll never connect it to anything besides a receiver.
Re:No spying possible if no camera & microphon (Score:5, Interesting)
How interesting it would be to do a drive-around with an open wifi hotspot in the car -- just to see how many LG TV sets try to connect and find out what data they send.
Just saying, for a friend :)
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>"No random passerby, tradesperson, delivery driver, ever had their phone's mobile hotspot turned on and unsecured...."
I suppose that is possible, if the TV were really that obsessed- trying all the time, while also ignoring the "off" setting.
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Yes but your last sentence hits it in a nutshell. The privacy nightmare not withstanding people actually *want* Smart TVs. Virtually the whole market for those who don't are made up of a few people here on Slashdot. People actively shop for TVs which include Netflix, HBO, Disney+, etc. I'm among them, I bought my last TV precisely because it included support for Steam Link and the ability to cast to it as a UPnP endpoint and support for DLNA. The trend for home simplification is clear among wider consumers,
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Yes but your last sentence hits it in a nutshell. The privacy nightmare not withstanding people actually *want* Smart TVs. Virtually the whole market for those who don't are made up of a few people here on Slashdot. People actively shop for TVs which include Netflix, HBO, Disney+, etc. I'm among them, I bought my last TV precisely because it included support for Steam Link and the ability to cast to it as a UPnP endpoint and support for DLNA. The trend for home simplification is clear among wider consumers, so it's a hard pill to swallow to tell them to buy a commercial sign display, and then bolt another box to it for functionality... and then they need to trust that other box.
The "virtually the whole market" characterization is not credible. All these amazon/google/whatever HDMI sticks, roku boxes, consoles and shit are mass market devices. Trends are clearly going in the opposite direction away from simplification with everything being siloed into an increasing absurd array of disjoined "apps" each with their own UX and layers of ads/upselling aggression across the various middlemen.
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You misinterpreted what your stats mean. In fact they make my point. The market for amazon/google/whatever HDMI sticks is evidence that consumers are looking for a smart experience. But they exist to support two other market features: a) TVs last a long time. b) media updates don't. Virtually the entire market for those sticks exists to support existing dumb TVs, or smart TVs that were abandoned (e.g. we went out and bought a Google Chromecast when our 10 year old smart TV stopped supporting Netflix, we the
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You misinterpreted what your stats mean. In fact they make my point. The market for amazon/google/whatever HDMI sticks is evidence that consumers are looking for a smart experience.
Your statements were pretty clear:
"The privacy nightmare not withstanding people actually *want* Smart TVs."
"The trend for home simplification is clear among wider consumers, so it's a hard pill to swallow to tell them to buy a commercial sign display, and then bolt another box to it for functionality... and then they need to trust that other box."
Now you claim "they" are really looking for a "smart experience" whatever the heck this means when before you repeatedly explicitly said "Smart TV".
But they exist to support two other market features: a) TVs last a long time. b) media updates don't. Virtually the entire market for those sticks exists to support existing dumb TVs, or smart TVs that were abandoned (e.g. we went out and bought a Google Chromecast when our 10 year old smart TV stopped supporting Netflix, we then proceeded to sell that Chromecast when we bought a new TV because the new TV once again supported Netflix.
Either people
Re: No spying possible if no camera & micropho (Score:3)
I use an Optoma UHD65 4K projector. It doesn't have Wifi. It has Ethernet, but strictly for remote control. Otherwise, HDMI and VGA. It can't phone home.
Re:No spying possible if no camera & microphon (Score:4, Interesting)
Or just accept a lot of people like and use these features or are indifferent so you can't avoid it, every company will do it so just never connect your TV to your network.
Gamers Nexus pointed out in BOTH videos that the LG TVs look for open WiFi networks and make use of them. So never letting it connect to "your" WiFi network is nowhere near a solution.
Their second video also featured a lawyer who analyzed LG's literally hundreds pages of TOS which can be changed at any time. The current TOS includes language holding LG blameless - and the TV purchaser legally responsible - for consequences which might be suffered by, say, the children of friends you have visiting your house.
The problem here goes so far beyond a "my tech is spying on me" viewpoint that it's breathtaking. I recommend watching the Gamers Nexus videos, if only to see and hear the slimy, scum-sucking excuses for human beings who represent LG. Creeps like them almost allow me to believe David Icke's reptilian conspiracy theories.
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If the manufacturer is ill-intentioned, of course the switch will be in essence fake.
A well intentioned manufacturer can make the switch working and safe. For such implementation, there won't be "OS flag" about the microphone being on or off, because to protect against privacy bypass by hackers, the OS can't interfere with the switch. The OS can only read the camera and microphone muted output, and guess the switch is probably turned off. The switch is also inaccessible from the usual TV remote, for maxi
Spying IS possible if no camera & microphone (Score:2)
You need to read the original reports. LG TVs take screen shots of what you are doing, encode them, and upload them to LG. This happens whether you are watching TV shows or looking at porn or your bank account in a web browser on your computer attached to the TV's HDMI.
I have two words (Score:2)
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So I either have to agree to being spied on or be unable to use the TV a paid for. I agreed to the terms and then went on to block any known server it pings back to. Since then I am monitoring the firewall logs to make sure it is not phoning a server I don't know of.
And as I pointed out in an earlier comment, if your TV happens to find ANY open WiFi network - and it's constantly looking for them, even when it's connected to YOUR network - then you're screwed anyway.
I strongly recommend watching both Gamers Nexus videos on YouTube just to see what you're up against. Even just watching the second video - which contains LG's weasel-worded response to the first video - is eye-opening.
LG is evil, and I don't think I'm being hyperbolic in the least when I say that.
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You mean like a device that may connect to wireless add-ons like speakers might need to do?
Also "Smart" Spy-TV's Have a Longevity Problem (Score:3)
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You're assuming they can't connect to a nearby open wifi net. Some reports have them doing that, though I don't know how valid those reports were.
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You're assuming they can't connect to a nearby open wifi net. Some reports have them doing that, though I don't know how valid those reports were.
Check out the recent Gamers Nexus videos on YouTube. They show the (redacted) logs of LG sets probing local WiFi networks and connecting to open ones. Their investigation is quite technical and well documented.
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Why a linux box? You can pick from a selection of awesomely capable sticks or mini boxes that work perfectly, support wide formats, and never ask you to mess with an OS at all. And they're cheap.
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Why a linux box? You can pick from a selection of awesomely capable sticks or mini boxes that work perfectly, support wide formats, and never ask you to mess with an OS at all. And they're cheap.
What OS do you think most of these run?
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I took the post to mean using Linux to build your own streaming unit.
Under that assumption, I'm suggesting it's a bad value proposition unless the act of futzing with the OS is the bit you like.
LG or Wireshark - Who do you believe? (Score:5, Informative)
Pretty sure I'd trust Wireshark over LG..
Failure to communicate (Score:5, Insightful)
It is not what we think you are going to do with the information.
Instead, we do NOT trust you. Not with the data, not with telling us which data you will keep, not with a microphone at all.
We do not want a microphone or a camera attached to anything that connects to the internet unless we need such devices for features we consider essential.
And the words "TV on" are not essential. The 'clicker' as grandma called it, works BETTER than your claimed feature.
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No idea why you're down voted. this was both a solid deep cut quote and highly relevant.
Liar liar (Score:2)
Pants on fire.
LG guilty of an epistemological inexactitude :o (Score:5, Insightful)
Sir Humphrey Appleby: “Unfortunately, although the answer was indeed clear, simple, and straightforward, there is some difficulty in justifiably assigning to it the fourth of the epithets you applied to the statement, inasmuch as the precise correlation between the information you communicated and the facts, insofar as they can be determined and demonstrated, is such as to cause epistemological problems, of sufficient magnitude as to lay upon the logical and semantic resources of the English language a heavier burden than they can reasonably be expected to bear.”
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Sir Humphrey Appleby: You told a lie [youtube.com]
Gamers Nexis fires back (Score:5, Informative)
Steve just posted a response to the response.
"LG Says We're Fake News"
https://youtu.be/ToP9xfLDSME [youtu.be]
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Came to post this. LG's response isn't worth recycling into toilet paper.
It's nothing but technical gibberish in order to cover their ass until the business heads can either divest or destroy evidence and emails.
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Thanks, Steve.
After he called them out on the McAfee adware, and now this data exfiltration, there must be someone at LG getting very upset with him.
For my part, I'm wondering who I'm even going to buy my next monitor from. I have two LGs on the desk right now, not because they had the best specs, but because the company seemed less slimey than Samsung. I don't know who else even manufactures OLEDs or mini-LEDs.
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Quite a few OLED Panel makers.
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Steve just posted a response to the response.
"LG Says We're Fake News"
Personally I find his presentations confusing. Having trouble keeping track of what claims are a result of hacking, hooking up external devices, enabling things in menus vs. what the thing itself is actually doing to normies. Often find myself confused by what seem to be non-sequiturs and specific non-covering responses to generalities especially from the guy in the red shirt.
Having said that all of this shit is rather insane... companies perusing this level of aggression against hundreds of millions of p
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Unfortunate (Score:3)
They make really good tvs. Always get high marks no matter who rates them.
The sad part is Hisense, from China, is usually ranked near the top as well, and we know how seriously China takes privacy.
It's not the choices you tell me I have (Score:3)
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Not a lawyer.
Especially creepy is how the TV it searches for open wifi networks.
Using an open network to download ads or upload usage info is a legal minefield.
Technical details please (Score:2)
Show your cards. Show the world the source code and related information needed so independent experts can tell the lay public what is really going on.
Yes, you may have to reveal trade secrets, but that is the price you have to pay when your product looks like it is up to no good.
LG ACR Uploaded 8.4 GB of Data in a week! (Score:5, Interesting)
Shenanigans, I call shenanigans, I want the government to intervene because LG is full of shenanigans and perpetrating shenanigans!
I have an LG OLED 60-in TV that I have been upgrading their web OS for the last 10 years or so and I have been monitoring that transmissions and their TV routinely tries to break out of my firewall block by showing up pop-ups and updates to the new terms of service that it wants me to accept and I always close down the window and never accept any.
As I mentioned in my previous post on this story, I was curious to see what was happening with the LG TV and I monitored its transmission through my internet router and out to the internet and found that if automatic content recognition (ACR) Is agreed to in the five different sections of the terms of service. The TV will take screenshots and will upload them up to South Korean IP addresses owned by LG and other registered entities.
I watched it upload 8.4 GB of data in one week of only about 3 to 4 hours of TV watching per day. There is no way that this is just audio data using whatever codec they want to use. Even straight up uncompressed raw waveform, it is definitely taking screenshots and pictures.
PS: If this poor excuse for a forum had the ability to insert images or attach images, I would show you the data myself. Also if I try to upload an HTML PRE-structured text then I could show you the textual output but I can't since every time I try I get blocked by the spam filter and having to fight it by changing the text is more of a pain in the ass than worth it.
Re: LG ACR Uploaded 8.4 GB of Data in a week! (Score:2)
If any attorney wants to start a class action lawsuit, I'll be more than welcome to participate as a primary plaintiff or completant since I have all the documentation and history of upgrades of this LG OLED 60-in TV running their WebOS for more than a decade and me rejecting and not accepting any of the terms of service after I unagreed to after the first time, I noticed the massive amounts of data the TV was sending with ACR spying.
The TV always tries to break out of my firewall blocks and when my interne
Re: LG ACR Uploaded 8.4 GB of Data in a week! (Score:3)
I remodeled my kitchen last year and bought an LG oven. The latch cover, small plastic part was broken. I asked them to send me a replacement. Online support agreed, twice, but never sent me anything. I ventualky they said they would send a tech, after I inquired about cost they said that I might have to pay for the tech (around $150, and the new door over $500).
I reminded them of the right to repair regulation in California and that I would even pay a couple of bucks for the LEGO sized plastic hinge cover.
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Never, ever again LG. I've owned several LG dishwashers (they break fast), an LG laundry machine, two LG 4K monitors. I've learned my lesson and when I had to replace my LG dishwasher yet again under 5Y, I bought a Chinese brand. It washes just as well and so far has been more reliable since I got zero issues with it.
Every time I get the urge to buy an LG anything I remind myself that LG = Gold Star.
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I watched it upload 8.4 GB of data in one week of only about 3 to 4 hours of TV watching per day. There is no way that this is just audio data using whatever codec they want to use.
While I don't disagree they are likely collecting screenshots, it's worth pointing out that 8.4GB of data over an entire week of 4h daily sessions (or 100800 seconds) is a transfer speed of only 83kB/s. It very much could be just compressed audio, and not even need to be uncompressed.
PS: If this poor excuse for a forum had the ability to insert images or attach images, I would show you the data myself.
Didn't your internet starter kit with your AOL account tell you about image hosting sites like imgur?
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83kB/s. It very much could be just compressed audio
That's roughly the data rate of uncompressed mono 16bit 44.1kHz audio, i.e. CD quality, albeit just one channel instead of two. If you believe that's what they send, you're a rube. You could send compressed SD video with audio in that bit rate, not merely screenshots every few seconds.
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Indeed, I'm just pointing out that 8.4GB is not a lot of data when talking about continuous transmission over time and not necessarily evidence of anything in particular.
You just in fact postulated a whole 3rd different scenario for what the data contains. Anything is possible.
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I'm willing to bet this guy streamed 800GB of 4K content and his 8.4GB is just TCP overhead.
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Okay...so it uploaded 8.4GB of data in one week...for 3 to 4 hours per day.
Which is a totally invalid metric to go by. If you literally looked and said "oh...8 gigs....10 days....3 to 4 hours a day...this is bad" and stopped there; then you did absolutely nothing of value.
There is more information needed...specifically; what's the download amount? Yes. It matters. Protocols have overhead. Downloading isn't free. When we take away all the junk the software is doing just to keep the stream going...there is go
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in one week of only about 3 to 4 hours of TV watching per day.
"Only"?
Misconceptions. (Score:3)
In a future firmware version (Score:2)
Everything is encrypted and sent with randomized padding to thwart traffic analysis, and help exceed your data cap.
Oh, and if you don't connect the TV to the internet, it won't work, and you can't return it for this reason. And we won't tell you that this will happen in advance.
And don't go crying to your Federal Government representatives and senators to regulate us. We altered the deal. Pray we don't alter it further. Those reps and senators our our buddies, and they'll do anything to protect us. After al
Just watch the Gamers Nexus video (Score:2)
The Gamers Nexus video clearly shows what is going on in LG televisions. LG's weasel words have no meaning when confronted with the video proof: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
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Here's is Gamers Nexus response to LG's latest statements: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
The arrogance... (Score:2)
The arrogance of the "We own the Glass!" and "It's OUR living room!" attitude is totally off the chain for me.
I will do everything I can to purge my environs of LG devices. Eff 'em.
The Correct Amount of Monitoring (Score:2)
The correct amount of monitoring is zero. I do not trust their assertion that this is optional and can be turned off by the TV set owner. I do not wish to change channels or adjust the volume with voice instructions. I do not wish to have advertising that is tailored to my current viewing habits. If I owned one of these monstrosities I would get busy with a screwdriver and some nippers and disable the microphone and camera physically.
Manufacturers are increasingly denying us the right to own the devices
The TV company that doesn't spy will do well (Score:2)
A lot of people are not happy with being spied on. Why doesn't a company offer a non-spying unit? If the collected data is worth the difference in price between a consumer and professional monitor, that is even more scary.
Pull out the screwdriver (Score:5, Interesting)
I have taken apart dozens of TVs to remove the wifi. It is usually quite trivial. Even in the unlikely event that the wifi logic board is not separate, the antennae are quite obvious and a quick snip will make them useless.
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I have taken apart dozens of TVs to remove the wifi.
Question: Which government agency or terrorist agitator do you work for? I ask because most people will never see even a dozen TVs in their lives, much less "dozens", and 99.99% of those people who do don't give a shit, and a portion who do give a shit don't buy smart TVs.
Who are you really?
Re: (Score:2)
That job is several years behind me now.
Also, the people that do give a shit sometimes can't help themselves. The wireless has become such a basic part it started becoming difficult to buy a decent sized screen without it. Sure, there are REAL monitors of a large size out there, but they tend to be several thousand more than a similarly spec'd tv with wifi.
Re: (Score:2)
The Samsung my mother bought wouldn't work without a wifi connection. So there's that.
The BEST and SAFE way... (Score:2)
... to employ a smart tv is with a settop box. But if you need the smart spyware ridden part do it this way:
- setup your wifi with a separate guest like section, apply network isolation. Now it cannot see any other devices anymore.
- try to figure out where the hidden microphones are located and burn them with a hot solder iron. Be aware this invalidates any warranty.
Do imagine, if you watch porn on your smart tv it will recognize this. And sell that info.
Re: (Score:2)
When most people watch porn, the fact that you do isn't really useful. The useful bit is whether you are willing to pay for it, and that's not gleaned from scraping your hdmi signal. That's happily given up by payment processors and sites.
I wonder... (Score:2)
Given these alternative routes the tv seems to find, such as unsecured nearby networks, I wonder if rendering it deaf and dumb would suffice. Allow it to connect to the network, but block all ports in and out. Would it be smart enough to drop the local network and seek other paths?
Legitimate (but overblown) concerns (Score:2)
While I'm not going to say the concerns raised by Gamers Nexus (and others) are incorrect, I will say they're overblown. I have my televisions (an LG and a HiSense) behind a layer-7 firewall on a separate isolated VLAN. I log (and selectively allow) only certain traffic. There is no open wireless network nearby.
The HiSense (with GoogleTV OS) makes dozens of requests to a huge number of Google-owned IP ranges any time it's powered on. It also attempts occasionally to contact AT&T. It's certainly possible
Re:There is no need for a TV 'wake word' (Score:5, Insightful)
> Anyone that wants to control their TV via voice likely already has a way to do it.
Back in my day, every TV had voice control, it was called telling your kid to get up and go change it over to channel 7!
Re: (Score:2)
You may not be the target market, instead normal people who don't have Home Assistant are the target market. You're a nerd (don't worry most of us on Slashdot are, don't be offended), it's worth noting that our needs are not considered a target market by nearly any consumer electronics brand.
Re:Opt Out (Score:4, Insightful)