Research indicates LG’s smart televisions are collecting detailed device, network, and viewing data, raising significant privacy issues despite LG’s claims of standard smart-home features.
LG’s smart televisions are facing renewed scrutiny after researchers said the sets are doing far more than showing programmes. According to a detailed investigation led by Gamers Nexus, with help from Level1Techs’ Wendell and other security researchers, the TVs were found to identify devices on a home network when activated, while also collecting viewing-related data and, in some cases, voice transcripts.
The most striking finding was the breadth of the network scanning. The researchers said one television identified at least 38 connected devices, including phones, smartwatches, printers and thermostats, while also logging device names, internal IP addresses and details of nearby Wi-Fi networks. LG does acknowledge that its TVs scan local networks as part of smart-home functionality, but it argues that this is a standard feature rather than evidence of misuse.
The investigation also focused on automatic content recognition, or ACR, the technology used to fingerprint whatever appears on screen. Gamers Nexus said LG’s implementation was difficult to avoid and continued to send data even when the televisions were being used only as HDMI displays. The researchers estimated that one set was transmitting about 4 GB of ACR-related fingerprint data a month to LG’s servers. LG markets the feature as Live Plus and says it is used for recommendations and advertising interactions.
The privacy concerns go beyond viewing habits. TechRadar and Tom’s Hardware reported that LG denied claims it was recording audio without consent, saying voice processing happens only when the voice assistant is explicitly activated or when a wake word is detected, and that ACR is opt-in. Tom’s Hardware noted that LG did not directly address allegations about transcript storage, while The Register said the researchers found plaintext transcripts among the data they examined. For users worried about exposure, Tom’s Guide said privacy can be improved by disabling Live Plus, turning off ad tracking and voice features, and placing the TV on a separate network.
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