An investigation by Gamers Nexus found LG smart TVs sweep local networks to map phones and nearby devices. Tests also showed the sets can capture microphone audio with the screen off — they then upload data once reconnected to the internet.
what’s that meme? a schizophrenic is talking, listen and learn
like for real the last 28 years have been extremely good for your credibility as truth seekers
The logging was shown using shell commands running on a rooted OS. I don’t doubt the companies can or are doing this, but it’s akin to showing that installing malware exfiltrates your crypto wallet info.
Anything with a CPU, WiFi module, and microphones is capable of this.
Which is why we need to be wary of products that have those things in them. Which this article highlights.
Instead we’re being asked to just accept that these “features” are going to be hard baked into literally everything we own whether we like it or not.
Right. When the fuck did a TV start needing a microphone?
I’m old enough that I remember our first remote control TV. The remote was on a cable. It’s incredible and wonderful to me how far and how fast tech has come - but some stuff is just going too far. You don’t need to talk to your TV. Same with smart fridges - WTF? I dunno, maybe I’m just showing my age. But this unnecessary complexity adds insecurity and more stuff to go wrong.
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.
This is why my tv’s don’t get internet access.
Bingo. No need to connect your display.
Yep an isolated vlan with no internet access. Cast your media from a dongel or computer connected via hdmi.
My TVs don’t get connected to the network because TV companies have started showing ads, and that was bad enough. Then came the fact that a lot of TV apps were making your TV into a residential proxy, making your TV into part of a botnet. And now, on top of all that, they’re spying on you.
The ads were bad enough.
In any reasonable world you would have control over devices in your house that contained computers and would be able to remove bad software and install your own stuff. But, these devices are all covered by section 1201 of the DMCA which makes it a crime to bypass any access control software. This is how Apple is able to block alternate app stores. It’s why printer ink is the most expensive liquid on the planet. It’s why John Deere is able to remotely brick a tractor anywhere in the world, and prevent farmers from fixing their own farm equipment.
What’s especially galling about this is that, the US forced the rest of the world to adopt this bullshit as a part of trade treaties, threatening that any country that didn’t do it might lose tariff-free access to the US economy. And now what happened? Trump just ripped up those treaties anyhow and imposed the tariffs anyhow.
I just wish there was a country brave enough to rip up the IP agreements the US forced on them and allow us to actually own our own stuff again.
This is why I don’t buy smart TVs in the first place.
I just don’t have a TV.
Unless you’re buying a commercial screen of some kind, you can’t really buy dumb TVs anymore, at least not from the major brands.
Is this even possible or reasonable? Smart tvs are pretty dumb if you never connect them to the internet, so no issues until they decide to add 5g chips to them
“The toaster is listening” in 2006 🤣
“The toaster is listening” in 2026 😬
It’s 1984 for sure. Every devices listens.
SO SAY WE ALL!
Frakking toasters.
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.
Yeah untrusted devices should run in a client isolated vlan similar to a guest network.
For what I saw in the video, even that way, the fucking TV try to connect to any available wifi to comunicate your data. Its insane
Yeah, I went with LG because I wanted to try an OLED, and the price was right. Never buying anything from them again, and whatever tv I do buy next I’ll disable all the shit from the get-go.
I’ve always been privacy minded, but things have gotten so bad, and I’ve gotten complacent. Hell, I just bought a connected smoke alarm system because my wife and kids needed something they can mute remotely. Should have just bought a stick instead.
I need to replace my WiFi, about time I get one with real VLAN support, so I can build an isolated guest/IoT network.
my wife and kids needed something they can mute remotely
But… why?
There was a good reason for it, but no one can remember why now. Anyway, car been mow knock side
connected smoke alarm
What the fuck? I would have simply bought a wall powered smoke alarm, opened it up, and wired an auxiliary button to the snooze button’s pads and put that button lower down as one of those wall switch buttons.
You really just need to complete the circuit to make it shut up.
“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.
Suggestions for people who only need and want a good screen instead of an ad infested spy station?
Use them as such, why would you give your screen Internet? Attach a Mediacenter of your choice, e.g. Kodi.
Update firmware over USB.
you would think its as simple as that, but i have seen reports of lg automatically connecting to open networks if they are available
theres also the possibility of them adding some cellular transmitter in the future
maybe the only way is the desolder all the wireless antennas…
Faraday laminate around the antenna also.
Why? Why would I accept a device in my home that will snoop on me if I use it as intended?
Because if you want a screen of a certain size, there are no other reasonable options.
The same reason you might buy a phone that will spy on you and show you ads. You can’t buy a phone that doesn’t do that.
I think the point is they can’t upload anything if they’re not connected. Unfortunately, they’re some of the best OLED TVs right now in terms of the display
I do understand that but I don’t think it’s something we should accept. Next thing these fuckers have their own 5G antenna and connect to mobile with zero config, then what, rip out the antenna or literally wrap it in tinfoil?
I agree. Don’t support what you don’t support. That being said, some people are ok with the trade-offs and that’s entirely up to them
My TV is 15 years old and works fine. Getting the best TV out there is not very meaningful anymore.
Ironically LG still makes good screens. Just don’t ever connect their TVs to the network.
Edit: If you must connect it to a network connect it to a different VLAN (Guest network) with no other devices.
It might be best to connect it to a network that just blackholes the traffic so it doesn’t go hunting for some open wifi.
If it’s like a lot of other devices, it will realize that it can’t get to “The Internet” through that network, and might disconnect. It’s possible it will then look for another option, and might see an open network and use it.
However their budget models (under $400) are very uncompetitive.
TCL and Hisense are much better at those, and you can disable Wi-Fi then plug in your own box.
This fucking chaebol has gone too far with this shit on their TVs.
in capitalist America , you don’t listen to tv , tv listen to you !
It’s fair to make it “you don’t watch TV, TV watches you!”
Which I feel like might have been a real Yakov Smirnoff joke way back when.
Kind of — Bob Hope made the joke in the late 1950s:
Bob Hope, back from his Russian junket, noted that there had been TV in all the rooms of his Moscow hotel–”only it watches you”
Brilliant!
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.
Checks out. I wish this was a conspiracy - but they got caught shaking hands w CIA. most people forgot
using US tech - either domestic or foreign; youre being spied by both marketers or governments. sad but true
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vault_7
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cia-hacked-samsung-smart-tvs-wikileaks-vault-7/
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/mar/07/cia-targeting-devices-smartphones-pc-tv-wikileaks
The CIA didn’t work with Samsung; they found a vulnerability in Samsung TVs then didn’t tell anyone about it.
Rip out the antenna.
Agreed, but, router block is far less work. 🤣
This is perfectly legal for a reason.
Are they monitoring everyone closely? No.
Are they monitoring those running for office, those they find “of interest”, certain key words and phrases, and so on?
CERTAINLY.
AI helps them to sort through the noise; this is the Patriot Act manifest. Companies are eager to comply.
Decades ago, they would have to “wire” your house to monitor you, tapping your phone and the like.
Today, they simply have to notice you, and they can get all of the data they want at will.
If your goal is political and unpopular with the powers that be, using the internet or phone will never be even vaguely secure. The TV is watching you… and the fridge and the washing machine and so on.
If you think your device is secure; that very same device is guaranteed to be insecure. They are supremely interested in those who want “secret” communications.
Correct vibe but many unfounded assertions that cannot possibly be correct in technicality
A screen that records audio without your consent? Maybe, they got inspiration from 1984
yeah how is that not wire tapping?
Luigi
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 still do that and never did it any differently. Mainly to conserve energy, since my parental household was poor and we actually could not afford to leave appliances running when not in use. This became a habit and now I’ve been incidentally preventing data harvesting for years. I do need to get an old 90s alarm clock though, since I cannot always turn off my phone at night when I have plans in the morning. Also GrapheneOS.
I’m currently only with a CRT TV and running GrapheneOS, sadly I’m stuck with windows 11 so I’m still tracked there.
The alarm clock is a good idea too.
A modern TV will be fine if you get one that allows set up without Wi-Fi then disable the eco mode and motion smoothing.
You can even plug in a GrapheneOS phone with a USB-C to HDMI cable.
Cellphones do this same thing though.
We can’t solve all our problems in one fell swoop. We can at least solve some of them.
Not all of them. Some have hardware kill switches and don’t run iOS or Android.
