LG Denies Allegations Its Televisions Are Always Recording

LG has denied allegations that its televisions are always recording conversations, stating that its devices have voice features disabled by default. According to LG, its televisions only activate voice recognition when the user presses and holds the voice button on the remote or uses the TV's "wake word." The company emphasized that the voice data is processed locally and immediately deleted unless the wake word is recognized.

Additionally, LG claimed that the Automatic Content Recognition feature, which transmits viewing habits and voice requests to LG, cannot be used to listen in on conversations unless the wake word is detected. The claim of hacking LG TVs to become listening devices emerged from a report by gaming site GamersNexus, which demonstrated that a third party could use a man-in-the-middle attack to enable an LG G5 TV to listen to audio from a remote computer, even if the physical switch next to the microphone was turned off.

The report also stated that hackers could access the list of IP addresses of all devices on the network, although the researchers noted that this vulnerability is linked to the TV's advertising functionality and not a direct result of the voice feature. LG countered the claims by asserting that the TV's microphone is designed to listen for a wake word and then perform the requested task, and that the wake word is detected locally and deleted immediately.