Technology

EU really should regulate against this kind of behaviour

Secretly recording conversations in peoples homes sounds like it should be against the law in a number of countries.

Imagine someone working for the government, security services, or a defence contractor. I suspect LG may be in trouble with a number of National Security agencies.

Waiting for the "No idea how this happened, we're sorry and promise to make this better in future versions" moment - instead of admitting that this is just part of their business model.

Hoping for prosecution from the EU and at least one other country.

"We own the glass, we own the TV, we own the living room. We know who is in an LG home." --LG President of Ads

These are the Gamers Nexus videos btw. Support them and their work. Get some cool shirts and physical media while you're at it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5KnFmKjFTA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IFVTcM28KA

My LG TV runs WebOS, which is a linux distro. I have been wondering how hard it is to root and replace with a distro of my own choosing. I had thought because my TV is pretty old that I was safe from the more sophisticated spying, but last week it interrupted what I was watching and would not let me continue using it without agreeing to new terms of use. This revived my interest in rooting it.

"The toaster is listening" in 2006 🤣

"The toaster is listening" in 2026 😬

I ran a packet capture on my TV as I left it turned off overnight.

They wake up in the middle of the night, do "stuff" then go back offline. Like a zombie.

I have a Samsung TV that I suspect does this. Once upon a time (back when I was less knowledgeable about this practice) I connected my TV to the internet. I have since been totally I able to forget my network from the TV, even a factory reset didn't wipe the network settings from it. I've had to block it from the network at a router level.

I only discovered it was still doing this when I got a new router, and I had a popup on my TV saying "software update downloaded and complete" and I was wondering how tf it did that even though I'd gone through the process of forgetting the network, and seemingly the settings showed it had been "done".

Shady fucks.

Ugh. So blocklists were not enough. Time to isolate my telly on the router.

there was a time.. long past I suppose ..when this would have been an outrage and politicians would be holding press conferences where they took crowbar swings to such devices. Things sure have changed.

So this is why every product started to go standby, low power mode, instead of turning off.

I think the original coverage from Gamers Nexus should also be linked here:

https://youtu.be/6IFVTcM28KA

And that's why I have a VLAN without outbound connections allowed. Still allows me to cast to the device from a separate vlan but the TV has no internet at all.

Suggestions for people who only need and want a good screen instead of an ad infested spy station?

Bring on the TV firmware. Jailbreak your consoles. Use Linux or steal windows and use tools to completely rip its spyware out of it (e.g. https://revi.cc/).

Custom firmware anywhere and everywhere a device that someone supports with custom firmware is a feature worth researching.

The fucks are only going to jeep doing it. Protect yourself. Push for GDPR like laws in the US. California's privacy laws are headed in the right direction.

This is why my tv’s don’t get internet access.

Stuff like this is why I'm still holding on to my old TV for dear life. It's seen better days but it's at least easily repairable.

The amp went bad which causes the internal speakers to give up after a couple of minutes, so I just run it with a soundbar. Then one of the cats broke the optical port for it, so now it's taped on lol. The panel still works great, so I think I'll just replace the main board on it to keep it going for a few more years.

Once something on it finally goes where repairing it becomes unviable, then I've no idea where to go from there. I guess I'll just keep buying used TVs and fix them up.

This is a good time to remind everyone to:

• Install Pi Hole, get LG rules to nerf all the telemetric data going out
• Jailbreak the TV, install SmartTube for your YouTube account without ads and live your best life
• Edit: since some people asked for a Pi Hole configuration, I found a couple of them that I'm going to try out and tweak:
  • https://raw.githubusercontent.com/TheShawnMiranda/LG-TV-Ad-Block/master/list
  • https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Perflyst/PiHoleBlocklist/master/SmartTV.txt

I hope it helps!

I thought I had disabled everything but mine was still connected to WiFi. Thanks for the reminder. I disconnected it and blocked it at the router.

Tired of doing this for so many devices. We truly live in a full on surveillance state.

in capitalist America , you don't listen to tv , tv listen to you !

Back in the 90's we had designated computer desks, where the big ass CRT and big ass desktop PC lived. Most people would use a surge protector power strip with a master power switch, and they would use that one switch to turn on and off the CRT monitor, PC, printer, desk lamp, etc..

That seems like a great idea right about how.

I mean I know it's about LG but they are all doing this.

There's a lot of misinformation in the comments here.

1. LG have been caught using the Internet connection of connected devices (like windows computers) to snoop on your network.
2. Because of that, it has access to your network even if you remove the wifi module or do not connect the TV directly to your network.
3. Lobotomizing the TV will not necessarily fix this issue, but I still think it's a good start. It may be beneficial to switch to a different operating system or just ban the TV from accessing certain parts of the Eco system on your computer.
4. Removing Bluetooth, wifi, and microphone modules will be beneficial in the long run because this will not be the last time a company tries this and it's not limited to LG. If you are technically inclined or can follow a YouTube video, go for it.

Oh, nice. Who doesn't like their fucking TV snooping on them?

accountablity? none. consequences? none (maybe a slap on the wrist at most).