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LG's rebuttal shrinks the TV spying story to a wake-word question

Gamers Nexus and Level1 Techs say packet capture and firmware analysis show LG OLED sets inventorying nearby phones, watches and Wi-Fi networks for LG Ad Solutions. LG's published reply is about the microphone.

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What happened

  • Gamers Nexus and Level1Techs used packet capture and firmware analysis on retail LG OLED sets and concluded the TVs scan the local network to identify devices such as phones and smartwatches for LG Ad Solutions.
  • The same report said the sets sample audio and video to identify content for advertisers, and that microphones capture audio even when the TV is on standby or disconnected from the network.
  • It also describes the TVs collecting IP addresses, geographic locations and the names of nearby Wi-Fi networks, along with devices attached to those networks that were never connected to the TV.
  • LG published a long response on its website a few days after the 135-minute Gamers Nexus video, saying recent media coverage may have contributed to misconceptions about how its smart TVs work.
  • LG said Automatic Content Recognition, voice recognition and interest-based advertising are optional features that are not enabled by default on its TVs.

Why it matters

  • Who's exposed exposure On the report's findings, LG Ad Solutions ends up holding a picture of which phones and watches sit near the screen, which puts visitors and staff who never saw a setup screen inside the data set.
  • What it limits constraint By LG's own account no connected product is immune from vulnerabilities, so the panel needs the patching and monitoring attention of an endpoint, on a network segment where it was bought as a display.
  • What doesn't add up contradiction LG's denial hangs on the word continuously, while Gizmodo reported the demonstration shows a set transcribing ambient conversation long after the authors stopped talking to it, and the two accounts cannot both be right.
  • Who has to decide decision With the volume of collection and the sharing partners unanswered by LG, anyone sizing this has to decide VLAN placement as though the report's findings hold.

A facilities manager hangs a large OLED in a meeting room, joins it to the office Wi-Fi so people can cast slides, and writes one line in the asset register: display. On the findings of the joint report, which Gamers Nexus ran with Level1 Techs and independent cybersecurity researchers, the panel belongs on the same inventory as anything else that reads the network [4].

LG's answer is about conversations. The company said its "LG smart TVs do not continuously record or transmit users' conversations" [21], and that "Audio used for wake-word detection is processed locally on the TV and, if no wake word is detected, audio is not converted to text, stored, or transmitted" [6]. On content identification, LG said "ACR uses audio fingerprinting technology using the TV's internal audio processor (not a speaker) to identify content and does not collect screenshots, screen recordings, video recordings, voice recordings, or other audio recordings from the TV" [7]. Those three sentences describe the microphone and the fingerprinter. The list of phones, watches and neighbouring Wi-Fi networks is a separate finding, and LG's statement leaves it where the report put it [13].

The optional-and-off-by-default defence hands the decision to whoever runs the setup wizard. Gizmodo reported that LG's opt-in prompts sit in the middle of the user agreements during initial setup [12], and Pocket Lint's guide to switching the data collection off runs five separate steps [11]. An installer opts in with a tap while agreeing to everything else. Opting out means five deliberate steps on every unit [19]. "People often consent to things they don't fully understand during a speedy setup," Lillian Edwards, professor of law, innovation and society at Newcastle University, told TechRadar [15].

Teams treat a conference-room TV as a monitor with apps nobody uses. On the evidence of the capture, the device looks for its neighbours and reports what it finds to an ad business [2]. Two questions sort the rollout. Whether the screen needs to reach the internet to do the job it was bought for, and whether it needs to see other devices on the same segment. A panel fed over HDMI by a machine already under management answers no twice, which is roughly what Gizmodo's writer recommends: "Plug in an Xbox and never connect the TV itself to the internet in the first place" [17].

Where the answer is yes, because someone wants casting or a streaming app, the honest position is that the TV is a managed endpoint with an ad platform inside it. That means the five privacy settings go on the install checklist for each unit, and get checked again after firmware updates [11].

What to watch

  • Whether LG publishes an answer on the local network scanning specifically, and on what LG Ad Solutions receives.
  • Whether EU regulators test LG's setup-flow consent against GDPR and ePrivacy, as The Next Web suggested they might.
  • Whether the same packet-capture method gets pointed at other TV makers' ACR, where Consumer Reports already documents the off switches.

Clarity's read

What the record supports and how the coverage leans. The claims behind it follow.

Reality

Evidence60
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap−10
Incentives70
Confidence55

Perspective Coverage

3 publishers
Builder
Builder 27%
Operator
Operator 50%
Investor
Investor 23%
Why these scores

Claim ledger

Ranked by verification strength, evidence, and original report placement.

  1. [1]

    The Verge reported that LG did not address broader concerns about how much data it collects, who it shares it with, the potential for bad actors to exploit its features, or the misleading way in which its privacy options are presented.

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  2. [2]

    A joint report by Gamers Nexus and Level1Techs used packet capture and firmware analysis to conclude that a range of LG retail OLED TVs scan local area networks to identify devices like phones and smartwatches, as well as the location data of nearby Wi-Fi networks, for LG Ad Solutions.

    Reported Supported Source: Gamers Nexus and Level1Techs report, as described by GizmodoView cited source
  3. [3]

    LG released a comprehensive statement a few days after the 135-minute video from Gamers Nexus was published, and put out a much longer response on its website.

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  4. [4]

    The report was conducted by Gamers Nexus alongside Level1 Techs and independent cybersecurity researchers.

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  5. [5]

    The report said LG smart TVs collect sensitive data including IP addresses, geographic locations, names of nearby WiFi networks and devices connected to those networks even if they are not connected to the TV.

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  6. [6]

    LG wrote: "Audio used for wake-word detection is processed locally on the TV and, if no wake word is detected, audio is not converted to text, stored, or transmitted."

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  7. [7]

    LG said: "ACR uses audio fingerprinting technology using the TV's internal audio processor (not a speaker) to identify content and does not collect screenshots, screen recordings, video recordings, voice recordings, or other audio recordings from the TV."

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  8. [8]

    LG said that "Some recent media coverage may have contributed to misconceptions about how LG smart TVs work."

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  9. [9]

    Gizmodo reported that the original report contained a clip of an LG TV transcribing ambient conversation long after the authors had stopped addressing it.

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  10. [10]

    The Verge reported that Gamers Nexus demonstrated an LG TV keeping extensive logs of ambient conversations long after one would assume its AI assistant had stopped listening.

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  11. [11]

    Pocket Lint's guide to turning off data collection on LG TVs requires five separate steps.

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  12. [12]

    According to Gizmodo, LG's "opt-in" process slips itself into the middle of a bunch of user agreements during initial setup.

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  13. [13]

    LG's published response addresses conversations, wake-word audio and Automatic Content Recognition, and does not answer the report's finding that the TVs scan the local network and report nearby devices and Wi-Fi networks for LG Ad Solutions.

    Derived Supported
  14. [14]

    LG said that "no connected product is ever completely immune from security vulnerabilities, which is why ongoing monitoring, testing and improvement remain important throughout the product lifecycle."

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  15. [15]

    "People often consent to things they don't fully understand during a speedy setup," Newcastle University Professor of Law, Innovation, and Society Lillian Edwards told TechRadar.

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  16. [16]

    Consumer Reports has a rundown on how to disable ACR across most major TV manufacturers.

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  17. [17]

    Gizmodo's writer recommended: "Plug in an Xbox and never connect the TV itself to the internet in the first place."

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  18. [18]

    LG said that user privacy is a "fundamental principle" of its products.

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  19. [19]

    Enabling LG's data collection takes no deliberate step beyond accepting the setup agreements, while disabling it takes five separate steps per unit.

    Derived Supported
  20. [20]

    Gamers Nexus and Level1Techs said they found evidence LG TVs record audio via their microphones, even when on standby or disconnected, and take samples of audio and video data to identify content for advertisers (Automatic Content Recognition).

    Reported ContestedView cited source
  21. [21]

    LG wrote in a statement on Saturday that "LG smart TVs do not continuously record or transmit users' conversations."

    Reported ContestedView cited source
  22. [22]

    LG said that "Automatic Content Recognition (ACR), voice recognition, and interest-based advertising are optional" and "not enabled by default."

    Reported ContestedView cited source
  23. [23]

    The Next Web argued that European regulators may want to look into whether LG's consent processes comply with GDPR and ePrivacy rules, though Americans are probably out of luck.

    Reported InsufficientView cited source

Sources

3 independent publishers whose own reporting we read for this story.

  1. engadget.com

    1 article · September 12, 2026

    LG denies accusations of smart TVs continuously recording its users
  2. gizmodo.com

    1 article · September 12, 2026

    LG Denies Its TVs Are Spying on You (Unless You Opted In)
  3. theverge.com

    1 article · September 12, 2026

    LG responds to TV spying allegations

Topics and entities

Topics

  • Connected Device Telemetry
  • Smart TV privacy
  • EU Data Protection

Entities