After a highly critical video of its smart TV surveillance activities racked up more than 5.1 million views and over 18,000 comments, LG Electronics has finally issued an official response to claims made by Gamers Nexus.
Last week, the popular YouTube channel kicked up a huge storm when it published a more than two-hours-long expose that claimed LG’s smart TVs have a number of startling security and privacy concerns that many consumers are unaware of. Among its claims, Gamers Nexus said LG is constantly logging and uploading data about what TV viewers are doing, recording audio while the TV is in standby, sampling inputs for audio and voice to see what people are watching, and scanning the user’s local network for other devices.
Gamers Nexus collaborated with two security researchers, MrBruh and uturn, to strengthen its claims. In the video, it presented firmware analysis and packed capture as evidence of its claims, and said it proved that LG’s smart TVs were identifying other devices on user’s local networks, such as smartphones, tablets, printers and so on. But the most concerning claim was that LG is capturing user’s audio via the microphones in its TVs, even when they were put into standby mode. It also said that the TVs would store data when they’re disconnected from the internet, in order to send it back to LG’s servers when connectivity resumed.
After seeing thousands of critical comments on the YouTube video and also in forums like Reddit, LG decided it needed to respond, and in a detailed statement to Tom’s Hardware it rejected many of the claims, and played down some of the others.
“The claims made in the recently published video are not true,” LG insisted. “LG’s TVs process voice data only when the voice button on the remote control is pressed and held, or when a wake word such as “Hi LG” is recognised after the user has activated the Far-Field voice recognition feature.”
The company asserted that, apart from when users have deliberately activated Far-Field, its televisions do not collect or record user’s ambient conversations. While the microphone is switched on and listening out for the wake word, that’s all it’s listening for, the company said. If the wake word is not recognized, any voice data that the TV picks up is deleted and not sent to LG’s servers. Wake word recognition is processed entirely on the device, it added.
Regarding the scanning for other devices on user’s networks, LG admitted it does this, but said this is a standard practice for all smart TVs and also other smart home devices. “LG TVs can identify compatible devices on the same network to enable features such as device connectivity, content sharing or smart home functionality,” the company said.
LG also addressed the claims regarding its use of Automatic Content Recognition or ACR technology, pointing out that this is an opt-in feature that users don’t have to activate. It said it uses this technology to deliver personalised content recommendations and targeted ads and services. But if the user doesn’t provide their consent, it won’t do this, it reiterated.
“LG TVs offer Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) to enhance viewing experiences, Voice Recognition for hands-free control, and Interest-Based Advertising to deliver relevant advertisements,” the company’s statement read. “Each feature requires separate explicit user opt-in consent and can be disabled at any time through the TV settings.”
The company further stressed that users retain full control over their data, insisting that it’s committed to full transparency over what information it collects on users, as per its terms of service. It emphasised that it strongly rejects “deceptive practices (dark patterns,” and gives every user the opportunity to choose their preferred privacy and consent options through the TV settings.
Finally, LG affirmed that it takes data security very seriously, too. “We continuously monitor our platform and partner with independent security experts to identify vulnerabilities and deliver timely security updates,” it said.
