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216M Spy TVs – The LG Smart TV Problem [video]

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Re: 216M Spy TVs – The LG Smart TV Problem [video]

#841

Post by nosioptar »

mitxela wrote: post #701
tosti wrote: post #583

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You got lucky. If you've got an apartment in, say, a healthcare facility, they'll install those thermostats and whatnot. Usually the neighbours are clueless about technology so complaining doesn't get very far at all. It's even worse if some staff wrote paranoid in your file, 'cause they'll argue it's good for "exposure".

You mean if you are permanently resident in a mental institute they don't let you control the temperature? That's hardly surprising...

I read it more as a senior living facility.

Those folks pay out the effing nose, they ought to be allowed to control the temp in their apartment.

Re: 216M Spy TVs – The LG Smart TV Problem [video]

#842

Post by dfxm12 »

sbarre wrote: post #556
rpdillon wrote: post #398

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a similar reaction from folks when I don't trust services/devices. Most telling moment was when I refused to upload my license to LinkedIn because I lost 2FA (token on phone, phone destroyed). Microsoft assured me they would "delete the license as soon as it was verified". I've written too many software systems for too many companies, and I do not believe them . Of course, they'd outsourced to AU10TIX, which d…

> my conclusion after dealing with them for many years is they will lie, cheat, and steal to get whatever they want Honestly, it's not even that extreme in most cases. I think it's usually not malice, it's incompetence. That's why I don't trust big companies with my data. Nothing to do with some CEO's evil plans, but more to do with the hundreds/thousands of mid-level "not my job" or "doing my best" workers who are a…

It's probably both, vis a vis negligence. I just wish it was treated as criminal negligence. This will continue as long as CEO's face no real punishment for mishandling PII.

Re: 216M Spy TVs – The LG Smart TV Problem [video]

#843

Post by charcircuit »

cuu508 wrote: post #837
charcircuit wrote: post #636

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It just reads as legal boilerplate. How else can voice recognition listen for a wake word without being able to process everything it hears.

> 8. I understand that LGE will retain the collected Voice Information for 6 months to fulfil the purposes for which we collected it, and after this period, it will be deleted or anonymized, depending on the case. Somehow feels like it might be used for more than just wake word detection.

It's normal for home assistants to save what you said after the wake word.

Re: 216M Spy TVs – The LG Smart TV Problem [video]

#844

Post by adithyassekhar »

bbor wrote: post #814
adithyassekhar wrote: post #787

> They also found where the microphone was software disabled via settings, it was STILL recording things but had the dB level so low that it looked like nothing but when amplified to +50dB later the conversations were actually still there.

Can someone confirm this part of it? I'm highly, highly dubious that these TVs are sending back random ambient conversation -- for one thing, it would be a truly monstrously-huge stream of data, no? I certainly believe that it sends back data when you use voice commands, ofc (both for advertising and product improvement). But this would be the first real case of something that's been a 100% false conspiracy theory fo…

It is in the video at 36:40 https://youtu.be/6IFVTcM28KA?t=2199

Re: 216M Spy TVs – The LG Smart TV Problem [video]

#845

Post by toomuchtodo »

spockz wrote: post #404
ungreased0675 wrote: post #395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would like to send vast amounts of garbage data to the LG servers. They aren’t being respectful of our bandwidth and data, we don’t need to be respectful of theirs. This also applies incentives in the correct direction. Their database of customer information becomes less valuable if there’s bad information in it. Disconnecting your TV from the internet doesn’t affect LG, feeding them bad data does.

I like this enough to actually considering buying one to get it to identify the endpoints. Maybe better to see first if we can find it in the firmware update downloads.

Have Claude or Astra reverse engineer the firmware?

Re: 216M Spy TVs – The LG Smart TV Problem [video]

#846

Post by bbor »

adithyassekhar wrote: post #844
bbor wrote: post #814

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can someone confirm this part of it? I'm highly, highly dubious that these TVs are sending back random ambient conversation -- for one thing, it would be a truly monstrously-huge stream of data, no? I certainly believe that it sends back data when you use voice commands, ofc (both for advertising and product improvement). But this would be the first real case of something that's been a 100% false conspiracy theory fo…

It is in the video at 36:40 https://youtu.be/6IFVTcM28KA?t=2199

[dead]

Re: 216M Spy TVs – The LG Smart TV Problem [video]

#847

Post by klausa »

dylan604 wrote: post #345
Angostura wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mine is still attached to the network, but I’ve turned off all the ad/customisation &AI stuff. Seems to work fine, no ads etc. though usually I’m using it simply as a screen for the AppleTV. I do have it isolated from other devices on my network, though.

If you're only using it as a screen for the AppleTV, why connect it to the network at all?

So I can turn it on/off using Home Assistant and my phone.

Re: 216M Spy TVs – The LG Smart TV Problem [video]

#848

Post by onecommentman »

xxs wrote: post #450
pixel_popping wrote: post #376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's insane, but it's not like it's not known, personally, each time we have a party at home with friends, we always unplug the TV for this reason, it's out of doubt but it's normal to doubt as it's proprietary and has a microphone, so it's a bit obvious that it might be recording and processing data somewhere. The same as I would never trust an average phone around if I'm having a private conversation. Blackbox+Mic…

A note => any speaker works as microphone. When I was a kid we used vacuum tube radio both as a passive speaker and a microphone... connected to the speakerphone of a telephone as a very poor man walkie-talkie. Using the speakers as microphone when there is no outgoing sounds is pretty trivial in that regard. I don't know how paranoid a person can be, though.

Depends on how deep you want to climb down that rabbit hole. You can go all Rusty Shackleford if you’re a privacy enthusiast. It can be fun.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempest_%28codename%29

Re: 216M Spy TVs – The LG Smart TV Problem [video]

#849

Post by garciansmith »

charcircuit wrote: post #636
Animats wrote: post #569

Here are LG's contract terms for appliances.[1] They are awful. Not only can they listen in. You have a contractual requirement to tell everyone in range of an appliance that they may be eavesdropped upon. CONSENT REQUIREMENT: You acknowledge and agree that it is your sole responsibility to obtain all necessary consents from any third parties whose voices may be captured by the Product and to notify household members…

It just reads as legal boilerplate. How else can voice recognition listen for a wake word without being able to process everything it hears.

Keep all the processing on device? Do so in a way that is legal in the jurisdiction you are selling the devices in without claiming it's the owner's responsibility to get consent from all individuals (even if they cannot legally consent because they are, say, a child!?) to comply with wiretapping laws in their own home? Choose not to sell an object that comes with software made to spy on you and sell all it learns to advertisers?

That fact that you read something like this as acceptable "legal boilerplate" just shows how, very sadly in my opinion, invasions of privacy have been normalized by these corporations.

Re: 216M Spy TVs – The LG Smart TV Problem [video]

#850

Post by voxelghost »

jeffbee wrote: post #762
voxelghost wrote: post #741

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it is a 'smart Tv', and it asks to get connected to the internet during setup? That being said, I have an old LG Tv (pre-android, forget what they call the os), and I never connected it, opting instead to hook up a firetv stick .... (who knows what bad crap they might be up to btw). But the point is, we are a minority, most people go the path of least resistance.

Did you mean pre-webOS? As far as I know LG TVs have never run Android.

Yeah you are right, dont know where I got the idea that they had switched to Android after I bought mine in the 2020s
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