The LG Smart TVs we’ve tested have first-party ACR (automatic content recognition) functionality that can pry into your personal life with greater precision than you might realize, with LG Ad Solutions’ executives and leadership saying, on camera, that LG “owns the glass.” Not you – even though you bought it – but them. They also talk about knowing everybody in the household, knowing the secondary devices, moving from TVs to smartphones and other screens, and more in their B2B discussions. Beyond just the fact that we think the TV’s native behavior parallels malware, the LG Smart TVs we tested also have a number of security vulnerabilities that can be exploited to convert the TVs into covert listening devices. In this investigation, we dive into the mix of LG’s first-party functionality that (in our opinions) is tantamount to spying and LG’s vulnerabilities and exploits that they have failed to protect against.
I bought an LG TV two months before I heard about any of the fuckery LG pushes through their TVs. Granted I don’t allow any device internet access but I’m still pissed.
The device record audio, even without internet.
Check the video for more info.
Never let it connect to internet.
This is a temporary solution though. One day they’ll just include cellular connectivity into their TVs once it gets cheap enough to do so. And this is terrifying because by then there will be no escape from their surveillance short of hacking into it or putting it in a faraday cage.
As someone who works in this space, it’s got a way to go as the data costs globally for this kind of plan are still bonkers.
They record audio and convert it to text locally so it has virtually infinite storage of everything it hears and uses almost no bandwidth to transmit everything once Internet is reconnected.
Yes, my only hope is that it relies on a wlan connection, which I simply won’t grant it.
Well then you don’t have much hope at all.
They look for any WiFi device you have, or your neighbours, HDMI connection(Those are 2 way connections BTW that can connect through devices that are plugged into your internet), or any other random laptop, phone, or neighbour’s device that it can connect with. Just unplugging them from the internet does nothing. They keep recording and as soon as you have to plug in again or another route is available, Boom goes the dynamite.
i literally bought lg tv hours before their first driver fuckery came to light. im learning how to jailbreak my tv i hope its enough
A new, fully open source firmware is way better than simply not hooking it to Internet, but the only real fix is to disconnect or burn the modem and microphone. Obviously, we all have different a different level of attack surface that makes us feel comfortable. I’m just giving you a heads up. You never know what’s in the other chips.