LG denies TV spying claims, says tracking concerns “not true”

LG has rejected claims that its smart televisions spy on their owners. In a statement to Tom’s Hardware, the company said the allegations made in a recent online investigation are “not true”, while confirming one of the behaviours described: its TVs do scan the local network for other devices.

What the investigation alleged

The statement follows a two-hour video published this week by the YouTube channel Gamers Nexus, which claims LG is operating “216,000,000” spy TVs. According to the video, LG smart TVs constantly log and upload user data, even when they are offline or in standby mode. The televisions were also said to scan Wi-Fi networks, record audio logs, and sample audio and video inputs to identify what viewers were watching.

The testing was carried out with two security researchers, MrBruh and uturn, and combined packet capture with firmware analysis. The reported findings include the identification of other devices on local networks — phones, printers and more — and, most significantly, the capture of audio through the TVs’ microphones even when the sets were off, with data stored while offline for retrieval later.

How LG responded

“The claims made in the recently published video are not true,” LG said. The company says its TVs process voice data only when the voice button on the remote control is pressed and held, or when a wake word such as “Hi LG” is recognised after the user has activated the Far-Field voice recognition feature. Beyond those cases, LG says, “the TVs do not collect or record ambient conversations”.

If the wake word is not recognised, no voice data is transmitted from the TV to LG’s servers, and the audio processing used for wake-word detection happens locally on the device and is immediately deleted. LG confirmed that its televisions listen for the wake word in standby mode if that feature has been enabled, but says the audio is processed on the TV and not sent to LG when no match is found.

Network scanning and ACR

LG acknowledged that its smart TV functionality includes scanning for devices on the same network. The company describes this as a standard function commonly provided by smart TVs and other smart home devices — a point many observers have made as well.

Automatic content recognition (ACR), which supports personalised content recommendations, services and advertising, is offered on an opt-in basis, LG says. If a user does not consent to the relevant optional agreement, ACR data is not used for advertising purposes. Each feature requires separate explicit consent and can be disabled at any time through the TV settings, according to the company.

LG did not address some of the other points raised in the video, including the claim that transcripts are stored in plain text. Tom’s Hardware notes that it has not independently verified either the Gamers Nexus allegations or LG’s counterclaims.