LG Smart TVs Accused of Tracking, Recording, and Collecting Data

LG just handed the living room its purest piece of slapstick. A Gamers Nexus investigation, working with Level1Techs and independent researchers, found that certain LG OLED televisions—including recent models like the G5—keep scanning the home network and capturing microphone audio even when the screen is black and the set looks fully asleep. The TVs map every phone, smartwatch, and gadget sharing the Wi-Fi, log nearby network names and signal strengths, and quietly store audio files that upload the moment the internet returns. All of it feeds LG’s advertising machine, which already brags about reaching hundreds of millions of secondary devices.

Picture the scene. You hit the power button after a long day. The screen goes dark. The living room falls quiet. Somewhere inside that glossy black rectangle the microphone stays on unpaid night shift, the network scanner keeps pinging every device in range like a busybody with a clipboard, and local storage acts like a patient filing clerk waiting for the connection to come back. Unplug the ethernet cable and the recording continues offline. Plug it back in later and the files head out the door without asking permission or saying goodbye. Automatic Content Recognition keeps fingerprinting whatever content arrives through HDMI or streaming apps, turning the television into a tireless note-taker that never needs an invitation or a coffee break.

LG has pushed back hard, stating that voice data is processed only when the remote’s voice button is held or a wake word is recognized after the feature is deliberately turned on, and that ambient conversations are not routinely collected. The researchers’ packet captures and bench tests paint a messier picture of what happens in standby and what survives a temporary loss of connectivity. Settings toggles exist, yet investigators found no simple hardware kill switch for the microphone itself. A Texas settlement earlier this year required clearer consent around data collection, but the opt-out still ships disabled by default on many sets.

The result is a device marketed as the harmless centerpiece of modern entertainment while quietly expanding the definition of “off.” Owners who assumed standby meant rest are learning the set may still be inventorying the household and buffering audio. The practical response from privacy-minded users has been blunt: yank the network cable, treat the television as a pure display, or push firmware updates from a USB stick instead of the open internet. LG’s advertising reach numbers look impressive on a sales slide. They look different when the same numbers describe how thoroughly a television can catalog a living room it is supposedly no longer watching.

The absurdity is almost elegant. A company that sells glowing rectangles for watching other people now finds its own products accused of watching back, even after the lights go out. Whether the findings force actual hardware changes or simply more carefully worded privacy notices is the next chapter in a story that has already outgrown the remote control.