The company claims reports about its capturing and uploading audio are misleading.

Earlier this week, Gamers Nexus, Level1Techs, and independent security researchers detailed some alarming findings about how LG’s TVs are logging and uploading data on its users. Now the company is pushing back against those allegations, saying that “Some recent media coverage may have contributed to misconceptions about how LG smart TVs work.”

LG released a statement in which it claims that its “TVs do not continuously record or transmit users’ conversations,” and that wake-word detection is all processed locally. However, the word “continuously” is doing a lot of heavy lifting here as Gamers Nexus demonstrated an LG TV keeping extensive logs of ambient conversations long after one would assume its AI assistant had stopped listening.

  • Malica@lemmy.zipEnglish
    24·
    7 days ago

    They’re adding a forced arbitration clause to their upcoming ToS, clearly the actions of innocent people

  • furry toaster@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    132·
    6 days ago

    “allegations”? the thing they state to do to in their EULA, privacy agrement and whatcer other garbage no one reads? what else now? google spies on you? apple spies on you? water is wet?

    • Dettweiler@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      10·
      6 days ago

      Hearing about it is one thing. Seeing someone put it to the test and showing the extent of the surveillance and data harvesting is another.

  • lechekaflan@lemmy.worldEnglish
    9·
    6 days ago

    North Korea must be having a field day talking about what it sees as Southern chaebol capitalism hypocrisy.

    • Jiral@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      6 days ago

      Darn, they are better at mass surveillance than we are. Damn oligarchic capitalism.

  • RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    6 days ago

    I have an LG tv and I use the Prime streaming app. I recently started working out after about a year of not. Never googled anything or told anyone or anything, just said out loud to myself to get out my floor mat for pushups and whatnot, and not just use my rug. The very next day, I’m suddenly getting Kachava ads on Prime again, which is a healthy liquid meal thing.

  • Rennmaus@feddit.orgEnglish
    41·
    6 days ago

    Are there any affordable TVs with 4K with good features without spying with Nexflix & Disney Apps?

    • turmacar@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8·
      6 days ago

      Most of the things I’ve seen basically say ‘no’.

      There are commercial displays that don’t have spyware / connectivity, but they tend to have significantly lower refresh rates / HDR / etc. even if they are 4k. And they’re several times the price of consumer TVs, at least in part because they aren’t being subsidized by selling them at a loss to make money on ads.

      • zeb420@lemmy.worldEnglish
        5·
        6 days ago

        Unfortunately, it’s either this or get a smart TV and never connect it to the internet and use a streaming device or computer. However with the computer option, some platforms like Netflix won’t let you stream 4K without meeting their strict requirements.

        Or just become a pirate and never deal with streaming services again.

    • Auli@lemmy.caEnglish
      6·
      6 days ago

      No. Everything is spying. Look at what Gamers Nexus said LG makes more money selling data then selling TVs.

  • NotSteve_@lemmy.caEnglish
    3·
    7 days ago

    Haha very happy my LG C1 has never met an Ethernet cable or WiFi connection but honestly wouldn’t be surprised to hear they’re doing shady things anyway like trying to access unlocked connections or recording everything for the future anyway

    • SuspiciousCarrot78@aussie.zoneEnglish
      3·
      6 days ago

      There’s a conspiracy theory that LG TVs - in the absence of an internet connection - attempt to create an ad-hoc mesh network with any nearby LG sets.

      No evidence for that but as conspiracy theories go, it’s believable and juicy, no?

  • Krudler@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    6 days ago

    Will these TVs throw an error if the Wi-Fi chip ihas been physically removed?

    I’m taking apart a thousand tvs, but never bothered fooling around with the Wi-Fi boards… Never felt I had a reason until these days.

  • ScarlettStunningSpace@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    31·
    7 days ago

    I bought one of their monitors a few years ago. Regretted that purchase on day one. It had a stuck magenta pixel that never went away. I should’ve returned it but I would’ve had to drive all the way back to microcenter. Now it’s affected by shit like this. The future is dumb.

  • DigDoug@lemmy.worldEnglish
    257·
    8 days ago

    If they were actually wrong about anything, LG would be suing the pants off them right now.

    Instead LG are “debunking” claims that weren’t actually made.

    • DupaCycki@lemmy.worldEnglish
      50·
      7 days ago

      Exactly this.

      If any of GN’s claims were false, it’d be a very serious case of false allegations. LG could easily sue them, win quickly, get a couple million dollars in damages, and more.

      The fact that they’re not suing tells us all we need to know.

      • pdxfed@lemmy.worldEnglish
        12·
        7 days ago

        Yeah, even then lots of times courts are used in asymmetrical economic situations against the smaller party so not always a tell with shitty actors.

  • Muffi@programming.devEnglish
    135·
    8 days ago

    After the recent controversies, I added a bunch of blockers for LG trackers to my pi-hole, to stop my 8 year old TV from collecting data. It blocked a lot at first, but then suddenly nothing, I investigated a bit and saw that it had started sending only to their Vietnamese servers, which were missing from my blocklist.

    Make sure you block all regions!