LG is pushing back against claims that its TVs eavesdrop on owners constantly after a joint report by Gamers Nexus and Level1Techs discovered unsettling details about how much data it phones home—including when the devices are offline or in standby mode.
The report used packet capture and firmware analysis to conclude that a range of LG retail OLED TVs scan local area networks to identify devices like phones and smartwatches, as well as the location data of nearby Wi-Fi networks, for LG Ad Solutions. Gamers Nexus and Level1Techs also said they’d found evidence LG TVs also record audio via their microphones, even when on standby or disconnected, and take samples of audio and video data to identify content for advertisers (Automatic Content Recognition or ACR, which is ubiquitous).
In a statement on Saturday, LG wrote that “LG smart TVs do not continuously record or transmit users’ conversations.” Instead, the company argued, LG TVs only record voices when users state a wake word or hit a corresponding voice/AI button on a remote control. (“Continuously” is a bit of a weasel word, as the original report contained a clip of an LG TV transcribing ambient conversation long after the authors had stopped addressing it.)
“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,” LG wrote. That process may generate “voice-recognition results and related technical logs,” and TVs may use speech-recognition results “to support voice-related features” but don’t later upload that data if it’s recorded while the TV is offline or disconnected.
Finally, LG stated that “Automatic Content Recognition (ACR), voice recognition, and interest-based advertising are optional” and opt-in on their TVs. It stated its ACR features record audio samples via a TV’s internal audio processor, not a speaker, and “does not collect screenshots, screen recordings, video recordings, voice recordings, or other audio recordings” from a device.
As Pocket Lint noted in its guide to turn off data collection on LG TVs—requiring five separate steps—LG’s “opt-in” process slips itself into the middle of a bunch of user agreements during initial setup. The Next Web argued that European regulators may want to look into whether LG’s consent processes comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and ePrivacy rules, though Americans are probably out of luck.
“People often consent to things they don’t fully understand during a speedy setup—they just want to get the thing done and up and working,” Newcastle University Professor of Law, Innovation, and Society Lillian Edwards told TechRadar.
Consumer Reports has a rundown on how to disable ACR across most major TV manufacturers, though you could also do what I do: Plug in an Xbox and never connect the TV itself to the internet in the first place.
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