LG denies Smart TV spying claims: What is found, how to protect yourself

LG has strongly denied all allegations related to its smart TVs secretly recording ambient conversations, listening in standby mode, and harvesting user data after a viral investigation by Gamers Nexus sparked global privacy concerns.

The two-hour exposé, produced with Level1Techs and independent security researchers, claimed LG TVs track users even when powered off, branding them as “216,000,000 spy TVs” in the U.S. alone.

Researchers alleged the TVs record audio through built-in microphones during standby, store transcripts in plain text, scan local WiFi networks for connected devices, and retain recordings for later upload when offline.

LG denied all these allegations, stating these claims are “not true”, insisting voice data is processed only when the remote’s voice button is pressed, or the “Hi LG” wake word is detected after user activation.

Any unrecognised audio is processed locally and “immediately deleted.”

However, LG has conceded that its televisions search home networks for the presence of other gadgets. This has been described as a "standard feature" of smart TVs and other smart home products. Additionally, Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) has also been revealed, though only in a voluntary manner for the purposes of giving recommendations and showing targeted ads.

There still exist doubts among critics. Some researchers asked what could be the reason for buffering voice recordings since voice commands were only valuable when issued. The second category of critics pointed out that the advertising arm of LG had advertised LG's capabilities to collect information about households, as in "We know who is in the LG household."

LG describes itself as committed to "transparency" and has dismissed any sort of dishonest behaviour. Users can turn off the ACR feature by going to Settings -> General > System > Advanced Settings > Live Plus.

The allegations have not been independently verified.