An investigation by Gamers Nexus found LG smart TVs sweep local networks to map phones and nearby devices. Tests also showed the sets can capture microphone audio with the screen off — they then upload data once reconnected to the internet.
My LG TV runs WebOS, which is a linux distro. I have been wondering how hard it is to root and replace with a distro of my own choosing. I had thought because my TV is pretty old that I was safe from the more sophisticated spying, but last week it interrupted what I was watching and would not let me continue using it without agreeing to new terms of use. This revived my interest in rooting it.
Is this with accepting all their terms and functionality, or also when declining?
I don’t know anything about those TVs, but i bet that if you decline you just have a fancy brick on your table, just like with every smartphone
On my TV I can use it and its apps just fine even without “smart audio”, “smart filters”, or the “speak into the remote” or “listen for speaking”.
Yeah but if there is a new TOS you prolly must accept it, what you lusted are some functionalities that you can just not use
I don’t get what you mean.
When they update, they’re still separate agreements.
The docu investigation found that despite declining, the devices still send data regardless.
Waiting for the “No idea how this happened, we’re sorry and promise to make this better in future versions” moment - instead of admitting that this is just part of their business model.
Hoping for prosecution from the EU and at least one other country.
Suggestions for people who only need and want a good screen instead of an ad infested spy station?
Use them as such, why would you give your screen Internet? Attach a Mediacenter of your choice, e.g. Kodi.
Update firmware over USB.
you would think its as simple as that, but i have seen reports of lg automatically connecting to open networks if they are available
theres also the possibility of them adding some cellular transmitter in the future
maybe the only way is the desolder all the wireless antennas…
Why? Why would I accept a device in my home that will snoop on me if I use it as intended?
I think the point is they can’t upload anything if they’re not connected. Unfortunately, they’re some of the best OLED TVs right now in terms of the display
I do understand that but I don’t think it’s something we should accept. Next thing these fuckers have their own 5G antenna and connect to mobile with zero config, then what, rip out the antenna or literally wrap it in tinfoil?
I agree. Don’t support what you don’t support. That being said, some people are ok with the trade-offs and that’s entirely up to them
Ironically LG still makes good screens. Just don’t ever connect their TVs to the network.
Edit: If you must connect it to a network connect it to a different VLAN (Guest network) with no other devices.
This is perfectly legal for a reason.
Are they monitoring everyone closely? No.
Are they monitoring those running for office, those they find “of interest”, certain key words and phrases, and so on?
CERTAINLY.
AI helps them to sort through the noise; this is the Patriot Act manifest. Companies are eager to comply.
Decades ago, they would have to “wire” your house to monitor you, tapping your phone and the like.
Today, they simply have to notice you, and they can get all of the data they want at will.
If your goal is political and unpopular with the powers that be, using the internet or phone will never be even vaguely secure. The TV is watching you… and the fridge and the washing machine and so on.
If you think your device is secure; that very same device is guaranteed to be insecure. They are supremely interested in those who want “secret” communications.
Correct vibe but many unfounded assertions that cannot possibly be correct in technicality
Umm… You’ve seen NSA’s data centers?
“No way every domestic telephone call is being recorded and transcribed!”
Next moment:
“Woah! Gnarly dude! A.I. that’s been trained on ludicrously large datasets! It can mimic your mom’s voice, dude! Here, check it out! It can also write e-mails like a human!”
All the leaked intel points to: this is a very real and possible situation. Better not think about it and stick your head deeper into the sands.
On a technical level Google knows where 80% of Americans are, because they’re using Google’s Android. It could report back what cell-tower their mobile-computer is using, or it could be using the mobile-computer’s GPS, or it could take the SSID of any nearby WiFi or Bluetooth device and compare it to a map that’s diligently updated daily by every Google Android user. To say Google knows where every Google Android user is is very technically possible. It’s also technically possible to infer other things with a satisfactory probability, like where the other 20% are.
The NSA, CIA and FBI were the data harvesters. The solutions to their needs were financed by them and we got… for instance, Google. They had vasts amounts of data and needed a way to search through it. Likewise the intelligence-agencies wanted ways to impersonate others digitally and… oh look, we have live ‘deep-fakes’. I won’t bother espousing how the economy serves the state’s needs first and any consumer commodities are second- or third-order artifacts, but really? You don’t think the very thing advertisers are doing now–in no way secretly either–are not technically feasible for the rapacious, infinite-money pits of the secret-police?
Right–I forgot! Only communists have secret-police!
Yes, they™ are very interested in your activity. You don’t seem to have understood my point, which is that saying things like “certainly” and “guaranteed” only hurts your credibility since you cannot actually guarantee or be certain of those things.
Thread about LG TVs conducting mass-surveillance on consumers just because they can: computers are dirt-cheap and consumers foot the bill: they pay for the malicious- & spyware-infested computers and they pay for the data connections that allow those malicious computers to exfiltrate data back.
User concerned about mass-surveillance.
Your post: that’s completely and technically impossible. I just highlighted how mass-surveillance of a national-population’s location is now child’s play because it’s fundamentally ‘metadata’ that’s generated by the network: it’s how computers work. The difficult part is computing on these large databases, something that technology companies have made great progress in.
Nearly everyone literally carries around an internet-enabled microphone in their pocket; surveillance-capitalists are trying to hot-mic and hot-video(?) consumers 24/7: see Apple’s watch and Facebook’s spyware glasses as the latest attempts to make that behavior socially acceptable. They rapaciously want more data. “They” isn’t a nebulous, unidentifiable term: it’s right here in this thread: LG, Facebook, Google, the FBI, the NSA and whoever else is trying to make a profit out of mass-surveillance. The computers are there collecting data maliciously (as it’s done secretly) and users’ data-connection’s are abused to transmit what is collected.
You continue to ignore all the leaks and literature about America’s intelligence agencies and their global mass-surveillance programs. What even is your rebuttal to Edward Snowden’s leaks?
I guess you’re ignoring the public-news about A.I. companies ‘partnering’ with America’s Department of War and hand waving everything away with a gotcha: oh you’re just talking about a nebulous They™. You’re a contrarian dipshit.
We kill people based on metadata.
The American Government blaming the killing of children on outdated data and computers.
Here’s an article that highlights the duplicitous nature of surveillance-capitalism and its brazenness: Pokemon Go users collected data that will be used to kill people. It was not consensual and it was done in secret.
Bring on the TV firmware. Jailbreak your consoles. Use Linux or steal windows and use tools to completely rip its spyware out of it (e.g. https://revi.cc/).
Custom firmware anywhere and everywhere a device that someone supports with custom firmware is a feature worth researching.
The fucks are only going to jeep doing it. Protect yourself. Push for GDPR like laws in the US. California’s privacy laws are headed in the right direction.
I ran a packet capture on my TV as I left it turned off overnight.
They wake up in the middle of the night, do “stuff” then go back offline. Like a zombie.
I have basically every URL our TV automatically pings blocked at this point. It phones home every 10-30 seconds whether they’re off or on. I think when we get a new TV we’re looking for a dumb TV
we’re looking for a dumb TV
Increasingly hard to find, monitors are going the same way as well as projectors.
Soon enough you’ll need soldering skills.LG’s monitors were downloading malware/ad BS so you can’t trust the monitors either.
To be clear this was Windows, detecting you had an LG display device plugged in, and Windows Update opting to automatically download the latest drivers/software for that LG display.
There’s a lot of misinformation in the comments here.
- LG have been caught using the Internet connection of connected devices (like windows computers) to snoop on your network.
- Because of that, it has access to your network even if you remove the wifi module or do not connect the TV directly to your network.
- Lobotomizing the TV will not necessarily fix this issue, but I still think it’s a good start. It may be beneficial to switch to a different operating system or just ban the TV from accessing certain parts of the Eco system on your computer.
- Removing Bluetooth, wifi, and microphone modules will be beneficial in the long run because this will not be the last time a company tries this and it’s not limited to LG. If you are technically inclined or can follow a YouTube video, go for it.
LG have been caught using the Internet connection of connected devices (like windows computers) to snoop on your network.
Do you have any sources for that? Not doubting it just curious about how that works.
These do not support your claims.
See the third link and watch the video.
I think you’re misunderstanding what’s happening. The LG TV isn’t directly using the Windows internet connection. It’s taking advantage of Windows Update to have Windows itself install malware as a driver update for the screen.
Which I think is actually worse, because it shows that Microsoft is complicit in this nonsense.
Secretly recording conversations in peoples homes sounds like it should be against the law in a number of countries.
Imagine someone working for the government, security services, or a defence contractor. I suspect LG may be in trouble with a number of National Security agencies.
Recording without consent is very much a crime in any two-party state, but my guess is that the TOS that people click past to use the TV gives them permission to record you. If it didn’t, they would be in big legal hot water.
I thought I had disabled everything but mine was still connected to WiFi. Thanks for the reminder. I disconnected it and blocked it at the router.
Tired of doing this for so many devices. We truly live in a full on surveillance state.
For what I saw in the video, even that way, the fucking TV try to connect to any available wifi to comunicate your data. Its insane
EU really should regulate against this kind of behaviour
Problem us that there are too few tech literate politicians
Problem is lobbying.
The problem is the system that allows for corruption to exist in the first place.
ding-ding-ding
AKA legal corruption
The problem is way worse: big tech
contributes tobribes politicians to vote according to industry interests.
EU lobbies won’t ever allow it.
In the later years the EU regulations have been massively disappointing. Only favouring big EU companies and destroying little businesses and the european consumers.
Some disappointing eu regulations:
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The cookiesgate. Your data is still going around everywhere. You just have a pop up everywhere that means nothing.
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¿Replaceable batteries on smartphones? No, only for cheap chinese phones if so. The big players can pay for some european certification on the quality of their batteries and doesn’t need to be replaceable.
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¿Stop killing games? Hahahaha don’t ever think about it.
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You are buying too much, we need you poorer. So we put up a 3€ tariffs per
categoryproduct on chinese stores so you are forced to buy the exact same product to an european retailer at twice the price. -
We heard you like the environment, what about a new complicated tax on packaging so all small business cannot function and only big business are allowed to send products within the european union.
I think the days of the EU legislation saving the day are far off.
Liberalism will always be corrupted by capitalism at the end of the the day. Maybe some systems last a decade or two longer, but it’s all bound to fall.
IMHO Liberalism was manufactured by Capitalism as a left-sounding form of politics to allow mainstream parties which were genuinelly leftwing to move Right in Economic, Quality Of Life and even broad Equality whislt still appearing to be left-wing due to their pro-liberty posture on Moral and Social subjects.
I say this because I have yet to see any form of Liberalism in mainstream politics, ever, anywhere, which sought to maximize people’s freedom to access limitied or constrained resources which are required merelly to live, such as Land (which Land Ownership goes against), so I don’t think that at least in Politics there was ever any genuine Liberalism for Capitalism to corrupt.
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I’m very glad that my “unsubstantiated fearmongering” regarding smart TVs doesn’t look that unsubstantiated anymore. I’ve Bad my girldfriends Samsung smartTV Lockes down once she moved in with that thing and I saw what kind of connections that thing made.
