An investigation claims LG smart TVs scan home networks, record microphone audio in standby and upload stored data when reconnected.
Gamers Nexus, working with Level1Techs and independent security researchers, tested retail LG OLED televisions including the G5.
Wireshark packet captures showed the TVs actively scanning their local networks for unrelated devices including phones and smartwatches.
According to the investigation, the sets collected internal IP addresses, the names and signal strengths of neighbouring Wi-Fi networks, and location information. Some of that information feeds LG Ad Solutions, the company’s targeted advertising operation.
LG says it has sold roughly 216 million smart TVs worldwide. Its advertising arm claims access to 363 million secondary addressable devices in the US by tracking other hardware sharing the network.
The televisions use Automated Content Recognition, or ACR, which creates digital fingerprints from on-screen audio and video to identify what viewers are watching across different inputs. ACR itself is hardly a secret and has been documented for years. The new testing suggests LG’s appetite for household data extends further.
During bench testing, researchers found that a television could capture clear microphone audio while its screen appeared to be powered down in standby mode. When researchers disconnected the TV from the Ethernet, it continued to store voice input locally. Once network access returned, the stored files were uploaded.
The investigation showed voice prompts being logged in plain text, which rather spoils any comforting notion that a switched-off-looking television has stopped paying attention. Researchers documented remote code execution vulnerabilities in LG’s webOS software during the investigation.
Those flaws are going through responsible disclosure, so technical details have not yet been made public. The researchers were sufficiently unimpressed by the TVs’ network listeners and default data collection that they recommended disconnecting LG sets from the internet entirely.
Their suggested alternative is to use an external streaming device, leaving the expensive smart television to perform the quaint old-fashioned task of being a screen.
