Is your LG TV spying on you?
Your television knows what you’re watching, recognises devices on your network and can listen in on your conversations. Does this mean LG is spying on us? I looked into this wild accusation.
My colleague Lorenz Keller’s article was about robot vacuum cleaners. More precisely, about a positive development for DJI’s new Romo 2, which no longer needs Wi-Fi or an internet connection to do its job. There’s no cloud, no account, no data exchange with any servers. Just a robot vacuum cleaner going about its business, if that’s what you want.
But then I read the comments.
«LG TVs are actively spying on us… and what about our robot vacuums?» writes Community member MobilerSokrates46. Below the comment, there’s a link to a video from Gamers Nexus. Spying? Sounds a bit over the top. But then I start thinking what if it isn’t?
So I click on the link. I have two hours and 15 minutes of coverage from American tech outlet Gamers Nexus to get through. In the video, editor-in-Chief Steve Burke and his team take apart LG TVs, analyse their network traffic, examine their software, and, in collaboration with security researchers, test what these devices are actually capable of seeing and hearing.
What they discover isn’t pretty. The TVs scan your local network for other devices. They know what you’re watching. Occasionally, there’s even a voice command that pops up in plain text in the logs. Under certain conditions, the TVs can also be used as recording devices even when the screen’s been switched off.
Hang on a minute.
Before we start throwing our LG TVs out the window, this last point does not mean that LG’s secretly eavesdropping on the goings-on in your living room. It’s this distinction that’s frequently lost in many reports on Gamers Nexus’s analysis. Some of their findings are simply part of the standard data and advertising system of modern smart TVs. Others demonstrate what attackers could do with a compromised TV.
There’s a world of difference between the two. Reason enough to find out if there’s any truth to this unassuming Community comment.
Your TV’s watching
Let’s start with the verified part. I’m talking about Automatic Content Recognition, or ACR for short. The term sounds more complicated than it actually is. It means that your TV essentially «Shazams» whatever you’re watching.
ACR does this by sampling the signal at short intervals and uses it to generate a digital fingerprint. Meanwhile, LG has published a major press release stating that they only use short audio clips and no screenshots for this purpose. The clips are used to create a fingerprint that’s matched against databases so it can tell the system which movie, TV show or channel is currently playing. It’s not like the TV needs to know details like Tom Cruise sprinting across the screen. All it needs is a fingerprint that matches that of Mission Impossible.
The method isn’t exactly new, either. ACR has been built into smart TVs by various manufacturers for years. What is interesting, however, is where this content recognition takes place.
And that’s what the RTINGS testing lab looked into a few days before Gamers Nexus. The RTINGS editorial team set up 15 smart TVs, streaming devices and one smart monitor in two configurations: once with ACR enabled and once without. They then used the network tool Wireshark to record which servers the devices were communicating with when they were sending data and how large those data packs were.
RTINGS was unable to read the actual content because the connections were encrypted. However, for televisions where the ACR traffic could be clearly identified, a distinct pattern emerged. When ACR was enabled, data was regularly sent to the corresponding servers. As soon as ACR was disabled, the traffic stopped. Things got even more interesting when RTINGS connected a PlayStation 5 and a laptop via HDMI: even then, the TV continued to send data.
That’s where ACR takes on a whole new dimension for me. Why? Because the recognition technology isn’t limited to content played on the TV. Instead, it can also be applied to external devices such as game consoles, laptops or set-top boxes. LG explicitly confirms this for its TVs, where ACR also tracks live TV data and devices connected to the TV via HDMI. For apps such as Netflix or YouTube, however, the function is disabled.
And this piece of information is valuable.
Why does my TV need to know all this?
The answer to this question shifts the focus from the TV itself to the core of a business that’s hardly noticeable when you’re shopping for consumer electronics: advertising.
In fact, we recently discussed LG’s growing advertising ambitions in this part of our podcast in Swiss German. At the time, some of the issues included ads on LG televisions and software for certain LG monitors that were installed via Windows. I own two LG TVs myself and am familiar with the screensaver ads. What I didn’t realise at the time was just how extensive the infrastructure behind the advertising has become.
LG has its own advertising platform called LG Ad Solutions, where it markets advertising space on smart TVs as well as explicitly promoting linking TV viewing behaviour to «additional data.» In a promotional video shown by Gamers Nexus, an LG Ad Solutions manager is surprisingly blunt about the company’s position: «We own the glass.»
Once you’ve bought a TV, it obviously doesn’t belong to LG anymore. So what the LG Ad Solutions employee means is the advertising space on the TV as well as access to information about what’s happening on the screen. That’s what makes ACR so interesting. If you know what content a household watches, you can segment target audiences more precisely and, as a result, sell advertising more effectively to advertisers.
Looking back at recent history proves that this link between viewing behaviour and advertising data isn’t merely a hypothetical problem. As recently as May 2026, LG reached an agreement with the Texas Attorney General, who’d accused the company of collecting precisely this type of data without informed consent. Although LG didn’t admit fault, it agreed to provide clearer information in the future about how to disable ACR.
As a result, a trend that’s delighted us TV buyers for years now comes with a bitter aftertaste. Namely, that TVs have become more affordable. A large 4K TV costs much less today than comparable technology would’ve cost 15 or 20 years ago. RTINGS has therefore come up with a provocative thesis: televisions are no longer the actual product – at least not the only one.
Your TV knows about your other devices
Gamers Nexus has revealed just how big this business is. In their investigation, they dug even deeper and made another observation. While analysing the network traffic of the LG TVs, the team noticed that the devices also regularly scan their own home networks. In one test, about 38 additional devices were identified: smartphones, smartwatches, printers, thermostats and even internal servers. The data collected included device names, MAC addresses and signal strengths among other things.
Source: Luca Fontana
And sure enough, LG hasn’t denied that this network scan is a thing. However, the company does insist that the scan’s far more harmless than Gamers Nexus suspects. LG claims that the TV only scans for devices it can work with – think game consoles, set-top boxes or smart home devices. LG also assures users that the information collected in this process isn’t used for advertising profiles or cross-device targeting.
Be that as it may, this doesn’t fully resolve the issue. That’s because Gamers Nexus’s list of affected devices goes well beyond the ones a TV would normally need to work with. Having said that, the investigation fails to provide any evidence that LG uses this information for advertising or even transmits it to its servers.
One screen isn’t enough
So, can LG read your WhatsApp messages or access the photos on your smartphone? No. The network scan is still questionable, though. After all, in addition to associating TV data, LG Ad Solutions touts its ability to extend advertising campaigns beyond the TV to other devices within a household. At least that’s how an LG Ad Solutions manager explains it in a promotional video shown by Gamers Nexus.
So what does this mean in practice? You might be shown an ad for a new car on the screensaver of your LG TV, only to see the same on pop up on your Google smartphone later on.
Meanwhile, Gamers Nexus has identified another flow of data. A security researcher observed the ACR system sending the name and signal strength of a home Wi-Fi router to a server operated by LG Ad Solutions. LG itself confirms using this kind of Wi-Fi data when ACR is enabled to determine the TV’s approximate location. However, it remains unclear whether information about smartphones, smartwatches and other devices detected during the network scan is also transmitted to LG.
The good news is that at least some of it can be prevented. RTINGS observed that the data traffic disappeared on several devices after ACR was disabled. But first you have to figure out where the relevant switch is hidden and whether «Agree» is really what you want. Gamers Nexus, for example, pointed out that LG TVs have preselected checkmarks for ACR and a «Do Not Sell My Personal Information» toggle that’s disabled by default – claims that LG flatly denies.
For this reason, RTINGS views the problem less in the fact that ACR can’t be turned off, and more in the issue of informed consent. Although the option is available, especially when setting up the TV for the first time, it’s not always clear what exactly you’re saying yes or no to.
Offline doesn’t mean off
Right. I guess this means I’ll disconnect my TV from the internet – the most radical and reliable method for preventing it from transmitting data to any servers. After all, no data can escape if there’s no connection.
Turns out that doesn’t quite solve the problem. Gamers Nexus cites earlier research indicating that ACR can continue to operate even when your TV’s offline. Ultimately, that’s what we agreed to. It’s not like anyone said that ACR would only collect information online. The fingerprints generated offline remain on the TV. So as soon as the TV’s online again, the fingerprints can be transferred. If you keep your TV offline all the time, there’s no need to worry. However, if you only disconnect it occasionally, there is.
So far, though, we’re still only talking about what’s happening on the TV. Images, audio tracks, connected devices, network traffic. But what interests me most about the comment left under Lorenz’s article is something else. Can your TV actually hear you?
Is my TV eavesdropping?
From a technical point of view, the answer is: of course. Many state-of-the-art televisions or their remote controls have built-in microphones for voice commands. What’s more concerning is what Gamers Nexus found in LG’s webOS logs: some spoken words appear there in plain text.
However, there’s an explanation for this as well. When voice control is enabled, the TV – like other devices that can be activated by a wake word – waits for the command «Hi LG» even when it’s in standby. According to LG, the detection takes place locally, meaning as long as no wake word is detected, the audio processed for this purpose is deleted and not transmitted to LG servers.
What happens after the detected «Hi LG» is when things get spicy. Gamers Nexus found out that the recording window may remain open for another 10 to 15 seconds. LG confirmed this as well and even cited up to 18 seconds. According to the company, snippets of other people’s conversations may also end up in the speech recognition results. However, LG emphasises that these kinds of voice and ambient recordings are not shared with LG Ad Solutions for advertising purposes.
Source: Luca Fontana
The Gamers Nexus team then took things a step further. When given access to the televisions, the researchers were able to record microphones and even the audio from connected devices. They disconnected an LG TV from the network, recorded the audio locally, and then downloaded the file themselves after reconnecting. In a demonstration, the screen even appears to be turned off, while the TV continues to record a conversation in the room.
Exactly how they gained this access is the truly explosive part. Gamers Nexus reported on previously undisclosed security vulnerabilities in webOS – the operating system – that they were able to exploit remotely, without any physical access to the TV. LG has yet to comment on this specific allegation.
Sounds like a bug in the living room. But there’s one crucial detail missing. For their experiment, the researchers had previously compromised the TV and gained extensive access to the system. In doing so, they demonstrated what an attacker with the appropriate access could do to a modern smart TV. But they did not prove that LG itself secretly activates TVs with black screens, records conversations and uploads the data to its servers for personalised advertising.
So, is LG spying on us or not?
This brings me back to MobilerSokrates46’s comment. After watching two videos from Gamers Nexus, reading an RTINGS investigation, an official statement from LG, and way too many privacy policies, I’d say: It really depends on what you consider «spying».
The fact is that modern smart TVs collect information about our viewing habits and may use it for a lucrative advertising business. This part is not a conspiracy theory. ACR can even detect what’s playing on external HDMI devices. LG TVs (and other devices) also scan local networks for other devices; Wi-Fi data can be used to determine location and voice control can record spoken words in logs. I find all of this much more intrusive than I would’ve expected from a device I primarily bought to watch movies.
The most spectacular claim, however, takes things a bit too far. Gamers Nexus also provides no evidence that LG or other TV manufacturers are secretly recording our living room conversations and using them for personalised advertising. What started as a legitimate data protection concern and a real security risk that not only affects televisions but also smartphones, smart speakers and surveillance cameras with microphones that can be compromised, is currently turning into a spy thriller.
Although this makes the story creepier, it doesn’t make it truer.
I write about technology as if it were cinema, and about films as if they were real life. Between bits and blockbusters, I’m after stories that move people, not just generate clicks. And yes – sometimes I listen to film scores louder than I probably should.
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