LG Denies Its Smart TVs Secretly Record Conversations, Explains How Voice Features Work

LG has published a new statement claiming that its smart TVs do not continuously record conversations or transmit them. The statement came after a YouTube content creator uploaded a video demonstrating how LG smart TVs are secretly recording conversations and collecting various kinds of information about networked devices, IP addresses, locations, and Wi-Fi networks without informing users. Previously, LG monitors were reportedly accused of downloading the LG Monitor app installer on Windows PCs without seeking user permission. These instances have raised privacy concerns among users, forcing the South Korean tech giant to address the latest controversy surrounding its smart TVs.

LG Smart TVs Do Not Continuously Record Conversations, Firm Claims

Recently, LG published a statement on its website to clarify privacy and security concerns regarding its smart TVs. The company said that LG smart TVs do not “continuously record or transmit” user conversations. Further, the tech giant said that the speech-to-text processing starts if and when a user initiates voice interaction via the “supported wake-word feature” or by pressing the voice or AI button on the smart TV remotes.

LG claims that the audio used for wake-word detection is locally processed on the smart TV. Hence, if the device does not detect the wake word, the audio is not converted into text and is neither stored nor transmitted by the smart TV. Similarly, the tech giant claims that the results from the voice-recognition feature, and other technical logs related to it, “may be generated as part of processing a voice command”.

To clarify, the company says that this recorded data is associated with “specific voice interactions”, and denies the claims that the system is continuously recording conversations “occurring outside an active voice recognition session”. On top of this, LG further explains that features, including Automatic Content Recognition (ACR), voice recognition, and interest-based advertising, are optional. Moreover, the aforementioned functionalities, according to the statement, are not enabled by default.

As previously mentioned, LG's statement came after Gamers Nexus, a YouTube channel, demonstrated how LG smart TVs were recording user conversations even when the device was on standby in a video titled ‘216,000,000 Spy TVs, The LG Smart TV Problem'. Further, the video showed that apart from conversations, LG's smart TVs were also collecting data on networked devices, IP addresses, locations, and nearby Wi-Fi networks, which was being transmitted rather than stored locally, a claim now being contested by LG.