LG pushes back on claims its smart TVs are eavesdropping

LG has issued a public response to concerns raised earlier this week about how its smart TVs handle users' audio data. The allegations were detailed by outlets Gamers Nexus and Level1Techs, alongside independent security researchers, who found that LG TVs were logging and uploading data related to ambient conversations in the room.

The company said recent media coverage may have created misconceptions about how its smart TVs actually work. LG stated that its TVs "do not continuously record or transmit users' conversations," and that detection of the wake word used to activate its voice assistant is processed entirely on the device itself.

The word doing the heavy lifting

However, the term "continuously" leaves room for interpretation. Gamers Nexus had demonstrated that an LG TV kept extensive logs of ambient conversations for a considerable time after the point at which the AI assistant would be expected to have stopped listening.

LG also said that features such as Automatic Content Recognition (ACR), voice recognition, and interest-based advertising are optional and not enabled by default. According to the company, ACR relies on audio fingerprinting processed through the TV's internal audio processor rather than a microphone or speaker, and does not collect screenshots, screen recordings, or video or voice recordings from the television.

Broader questions unaddressed

The statement did not address wider concerns raised by critics, including how much user data LG collects overall, which third parties it may share that data with, the risk of the TV's features being exploited by bad actors, or complaints that the company's privacy settings are presented in a misleading way to consumers.