LG has dismissed claims that its smart TVs spy on their owners and record audio inside their homes. The South Korean manufacturer called concerns about data collection and covert listening unfounded, Tom’s Hardware reports.
The accusations come from a two-hour video by YouTube channel Gamers Nexus, whose team found vulnerabilities in LG sets. The investigation claims 216 million devices constantly collect and send owner data. That activity allegedly continues even with no internet connection, or while the TV sits in standby. The sets scan Wi-Fi networks, record audio and analyze incoming audio and video signals to identify what the owner is watching. Researchers also saw the TVs picking out phones, printers and other hardware on the local network.
The most serious accusation concerns the built-in microphones. According to the researchers, the TV records audio even in standby. It then stores that data to send on later.
“The claims made in the recently published video are not true. LG TVs process voice data only when the user presses and holds the voice control button on the remote, or when a wake phrase such as ‘Hi LG’ is recognized after Far-Field voice recognition has been turned on,” the company said.
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Outside those cases, the TVs do not collect or record conversations in the room, LG stressed. If the wake phrase is not recognized, no voice data leaves the TV for a server. The processing that listens for the phrase runs locally on the device.
LG did confirm the network scanning. The company called it a standard feature of every TV and other smart home hardware.
Automatic content recognition (ACR), which identifies what is on the screen, runs on the user’s opt-in consent. It powers personalized recommendations, ads and other services. Without that separate agreement, LG says, ACR data is not used for advertising.
The company left part of the investigation unanswered, including the claim that speech transcripts are stored in plain text.
