Researchers found LG smart TVs may be identifying other devices on home networks, including phones, computers, and smartwatches.
The TVs use Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) to identify what you're watching, including content coming from devices connected through HDMI.
Want more privacy? Turn off ACR and voice features, keep your TV updated, or disconnect it from Wi-Fi entirely.
You probably don't think much about your television once you hit the power button. But a new investigation suggests some LG smart TVs may still be doing quite a bit behind that black screen.
YouTube channel Gamers Nexus, working with Level1Techs and independent security researchers, spent hundreds of hours examining LG OLED televisions and monitoring the data they collected and transmitted.
What they found raises some serious privacy questions.
The tested TVs scanned their home networks and identified other connected hardware, including phones, computers, and smartwatches. Researchers also found them collecting information about nearby Wi-Fi networks, IP addresses, and location-related data.
In other words, your smart TV isn't simply a screen anymore. It's an internet-connected computer sitting on the same network as many of the other devices in your home.
Could your TV listen when it's off?
Perhaps the most unsettling finding wasn't part of LG's normal advertising tracking at all.
Researchers uncovered security vulnerabilities in LG's webOS software that they say could allow a compromised television to capture audio through its microphone — including while the TV appears to be off and sitting in standby mode.
In their demonstration, researchers were even able to capture audio while the television was disconnected from the internet. The audio could be stored on the device and retrieved after the connection was restored.
That's an important distinction: The researchers aren't simply saying that every LG TV is secretly recording your living-room conversations and sending them to LG.
Instead, they demonstrated that security flaws could potentially give an attacker access to the television's microphone and other capabilities.
Researchers have reported the vulnerabilities to LG and are withholding some technical details while the responsible-disclosure process plays out.
Your TV may know exactly what you're watching
One of the key tracking technologies built into smart TVs is called Automatic Content Recognition, or ACR. ACR analyzes snippets of what's appearing on your TV and creates digital fingerprints that can be matched against a database to determine what you're watching.
And switching to a Roku, Apple TV, or gaming console doesn't necessarily stop it.
The technology can identify content displayed through HDMI and other inputs, meaning the television can potentially recognize what's on your screen even when you're not using LG's built-in streaming apps.
ACR isn't unique to LG. It's widely used by smart-TV manufacturers for advertising and audience measurement.
But LG's practices have already attracted regulatory scrutiny.
In May, LG reached an agreement with the Texas attorney general requiring the company to obtain informed consent before collecting viewing data through ACR and provide consumers with a clear way to opt out.
How to make your smart TV more private
If you own an LG smart TV, it's worth spending a few minutes going through its privacy settings.
Look for settings related to Live Plus or ACR, viewing information, personalized advertising, and voice recognition, and turn off features you don't want or use.
Also keep the television's software updated. That's especially important when researchers uncover security vulnerabilities that manufacturers may subsequently patch.
Want to take it a step further?
You can disconnect the television itself from Wi-Fi and use a separate streaming device instead. Gamers Nexus recommends that approach for consumers who want to minimize the amount of information their television can collect and transmit.
Be warned that you'll sacrifice some of the TV's built-in smart features.
But your TV will also become a lot closer to what televisions used to be: a screen you watch rather than another internet-connected device watching what you do.