LG smart TVs caught logging audio with screen off and scanning local devices

An investigation published by Gamers Nexus has documented extensive data collection by LG smart TVs, including continuous local-network scanning and microphone audio capture that keeps running while the screen appears to be off. The 135-minute video was produced together with Level1Techs and independent security researchers, who tested retail LG OLED sets, among them the G5.

What the packet captures showed

Traffic recorded with Wireshark showed the televisions actively scanning the local area network for unrelated hardware, including phones and smartwatches. Beyond internal IP addresses, the sets stored the names and signal strengths of nearby Wi-Fi networks as well as location data. That stream feeds LG Ad Solutions, the company's targeted advertising arm.

The scale is significant. LG says it has sold roughly 216 million smart TVs worldwide, while its advertising division claims access to 363 million secondary addressable devices in the United States alone, obtained by tracking other hardware on the same network. The sets also use Automated Content Recognition, which samples on-screen audio and video into digital fingerprints to record what viewers watch across inputs. ACR had been documented before; the new testing indicates the collection extends well beyond it.

Microphone active with the screen dark

On the test bench, the team found the TV could capture clean microphone audio while in standby mode, at least in appearance. When the set was disconnected from Ethernet, it continued storing voice input locally and uploaded the retained files once network access was restored.

The researchers also documented remote code execution vulnerabilities in webOS that are currently going through the responsible disclosure process. Because the televisions ship with broad network listeners and data sweeps enabled by default, their recommendation was blunt: disconnect LG sets from the internet and use an external streaming device instead.

Why it matters

The findings put a concrete measure on a familiar privacy concern. A television that behaves as a network sensor in the home gathers information not only about its owner but about every device sharing the connection, and it can keep collecting while the user believes the set is powered down. LG had not commented on the findings at the time of writing.