Your LG TV Could Let Attackers Spy On You — But The Company Denies It

A recent YouTube video has electronics manufacturer LG making statements about the security of its TVs concerning how they access and transmit your information. After the website Gamers Nexus posted a two-hour YouTube video claiming that televisions made by the company are capable of listening to real-time conversations despite the TV's voice controls never being used, LG has responded that the claims are not true. Regardless, the news may have some users reminiscing over when smart TVs were actually dumber.

The video was posted on September 6 and has already gained over 4 million views on the platform. Within the video, the creators claim that a third party is capable of hacking LG TVs to have them listen to conversations even if a user has disabled the device's microphone. According to the video, this is partly possible because of an advertisement feature built into the TVs. Notably, some LG smart TVs have an Automatic Content Recognition feature that sends certain user information like viewing habits to the company for advertising purposes.

In an article posted by CNET, LG responded to the report by stating claims in the video were not true. According to the company, voice data is only processed when a user activates a voice control button on their remote or uses the TV's wake word. LG also claims the audio used for wake-word detection is processed locally, immediately deleted, and never sent to its servers when there's been a false positive. Be that as it may, this is certainly not the first time smart TVs have been accused of collecting user data without consent.

Compiled with the help of Level1Techs, the two-hour video from Gamers Nexus details how the group was able to use a man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack on an LG G5 TV. If you're not familiar, this type of attack typically involves a bad actor intercepting communications between two parties, and Gamers Nexus claims a compromised TV was capable of recording audio even if the device had no active internet connection. The source states that this capability is partly due to an exploit in LG's Automatic Content Recognition feature.

The video also mentions that a hacker controlling the TV can potentially access audio from an HDMI input or USB webcam, even if the microphone on the TV itself is disabled. Additionally, the video also claims that those involved were able to access the IP addresses of other devices connected to a network, regardless of whether or not they had a connection to the TV. LG responded by stating that many smart TVs have the ability to search for and connect to other nearby devices.

The company also mentions that LG microphones are designed to listen for a wake word and perform requested user actions. As CNET notes, content recognition in smart TVs is nothing new, and plenty of devices will also record your voice for a few moments after hearing a wake word. Of course, there are ways to prevent a smart TV from spying on your activities, but those behind the video also recommend removing LG TVs from a network to potentially offset the risk of attacks for the time being.