A major investigation by Gamers Nexus and independent security researchers found that LG smart TVs do far more than show you shows. They map your home network, log your voice, and phone it all home.
What they found
Using network-analysis tools, researchers watched LG TVs (running webOS):
Scan the local network and identify other devices. One TV spotted 38, including phones, smartwatches, a 3D printer, thermostats, and an air purifier that were never connected to it.
Collect IP addresses and geolocation, plus the names and signal strength of nearby WiFi networks, which can pinpoint your location.
Use "automatic content recognition" (ACR) to log what's on screen, sending about 4GB of viewing data to LG each month.
Convert voice commands to text and store them in logs on the TV. In one test, voice data kept saving after the TV was unplugged from the internet, then uploaded once it reconnected.
LG Ad Solutions markets this to advertisers: 216 million LG TVs worldwide, 49 million in the US.
Why it matters
The researchers say this isn't a bug, it's built in. A TV that maps your devices and logs your voice sits in living rooms, but also hotel rooms, hospitals, and boardrooms. LG says its TVs "do not collect, record, or store ambient conversations," but these findings are about voice commands, logged as text, and the mic stayed active 10 to 15 seconds after each one.
What to do
The strongest fix: disconnect the TV from the internet and plug in a separate streaming box (Apple TV, Roku) you can control.
If you keep it online, turn off ACR (on LG: Settings > General > Live Plus, off) and decline the viewing-data and personalized-ads prompts.
Turn off voice and mic features you don't use, and put the TV on a guest WiFi so it can't see your phones and laptops.
Block it at the network level, so it can't phone home. Wednesday's resource shows you how.
Quick tip
Forgetting the WiFi is the one setting LG can't override. A $40 streaming stick gives you the apps back, without the TV watching the room.
Up next · Wednesday
The free tool that stops your TV, and every other device, from quietly phoning home.