LG accused of invasion of privacy over TV data collection, states The Register
LG is again fending off allegations that its expensive consumer hardware gathers extensive information about users and their surroundings for the benefit of its advertising business, reports The Register.
The latest concerns, states The Register, “center on smart TVs that researchers claim continued capturing audio after voice recognition was activated, including while the display was in standby.
“The claims once again come from the folks behind the Gamers Nexus YouTube channel, which also claimed in July that LG’s monitors were surreptitiously installing adware using an automatic Windows process.
“After inspecting the TVs’ network traffic and internal data, editor-in-chief Stephen Burke said the team found plaintext transcripts generated from audio captured by the TV, along with other information.
“The Gamers Nexus crew said it observed the TV collecting IP addresses, location data, and the names, signal strengths, and channel numbers of nearby Wi-Fi networks.”
According to The Register: “LG does not hide the fact that its hardware incorporates technology from its advertising business, LG Ads Solutions.
“In 2022, it announced that automatic content recognition (ACR) technology previously limited to its US smart TVs would be deployed in sets sold across 27 countries, with the resulting insights available through its advertising business.”
The Register reports that LG “is not alone. Most major smart TV manufacturers deploy some form of ACR in their hardware, although the controls available to users vary by vendor.”
