South Korea-based tech firm LG has denied reports that its smart TVs can be used to eavesdrop on the conversations of its users, including when they appear to be turned off or disconnected from the internet.
A report by Gamers Nexus last week, in partnership with Level1Techs and independent security researchers, focused on the range of information collected by LG smart TVs through Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) systems, which are now common in such devices.
It alleged that these “spy TVs” can “pry into your personal life with greater precision than you might realise” and are “able to be utilised as eavesdropping listening devices” in what the report said was an “egregious invasion of privacy”.
LG hits back
LG has now hit back at these claims, in a statement saying that many of the claims are incorrect or based on “misconceptions”.
“LG Electronics takes customer privacy seriously and is committed to providing clear information and meaningful choices around how our products operate,” LG said in a statement provided to Information Age.
The company said the claim by the researchers that LG TVs continuously record ambient conversations are “not correct”.
“LG TVs process voice data when the voice button on the remote control is pressed and held, or when a recognised wake word such as “Hi LG” is detected after the customer has activated Far-Field voice recognition.
“Outside of these instances, LG TVs do not collect or record ambient conversations.
“If a wake word is not recognised, no voice data is transmitted to LG servers.
“Audio processing required for wake word detection takes place locally on the device and the audio is immediately deleted.”
The company said that its ACR system, which was one of the main focuses of the investigation, is provided on an opt-in basis.
“If a customer does not consent to the applicable optional agreement, ACR data is not used for advertising purposes,” the statement said.
“We believe customers should have clear information about these features and control over their privacy choices and we remain committed to transparency around how our connected products operate.”
LG has also provided a statement on its website about the issue it said is addressing “misconceptions” about how its smart TVs work.
The researchers respond to the response
The original investigator, Gamers Nexus, has now responded to LG’s statement and accused the tech giant of “lying”.
The report stated several “concerning vulnerabilities” had also been identified in the LG TVs, and that this had been reported through the appropriate disclosure processes.
This included a remote code execution vulnerability that could allow an attack to take control over certain elements of a TV.
Gamers Nexus said that LG had not responded to this part of its investigation.
“LG cannot possibly ensure that its TVs do not do these things, considering the gigantic gaping security holes that they still haven’t patched,” Gamers Nexus said in a new video responding to LG’s statement.
“LG did not once in this entire pretty long response address our security concerns.
“There’s not a single reference to how or if they are patching the vulnerabilities that we discovered and security researchers discovered and reported to them.”
The researchers challenged LG to provide evidence that their claims are untrue.
“Our video contains demonstrations and proofs of concept and tests supporting the claims that we made,” they said.
“LG is a multibillionaire-dollar corporation…if our claims are false as LG says, then we welcome LG to publish evidence of them being false to the public internet.
“Instead, LG resorted to the ‘fake news’ response to our video and went with denial without any evidence.”
