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LG denies TV spying claims, says tracking and snooping concerns 'not true'

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Re: LG denies TV spying claims, says tracking and snooping concerns 'not true'

#421
post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Use Apple TV for that.

If you want true, verifiable privacy and control, it's not an Apple TV that you need. Any old laptop or desktop computer can be used to stream content from the Internet using a Web browser or other "apps."

E.g. Netflix doesn't let you to stream 4k video in browser afaik. So no, it's not a good option.

Re: LG denies TV spying claims, says tracking and snooping concerns 'not true'

#422

"We own the glass" that's what really stood out to me. I can still disconnect my TV from wifi. But what scares me is when every device comes with their own esim and cellular radio.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the quote was taken out of context when they were speaking about vertical integration. "We own the glass" was meant to say that they manufacture the panels themselves and not source them from a 3rd party.

Re: LG denies TV spying claims, says tracking and snooping concerns 'not true'

#423
1. We do NOT record or log anything

2. We might log something but it is local only and these specific features

3. Okay maybe we'll log a little but the TOS gives us permission

4. Yes we log and record everything and this is why it's a good thing; you ought to pay us actually

Re: LG denies TV spying claims, says tracking and snooping concerns 'not true'

#424

I've one question: I've used android phone (realme, which is chinese). And i remember that whenever we used to discuss somethings among our friends, i started used to get ads realated to that on my laptop, phone within atmost a hour. So, was realme transcribing all conversations and uploading it? Can someone answer?

I think it's metadata. Whenever you visit a website, there are many things that track you: 1. The website itself is sending your activities to ads platforms, with your hashed email address and phone number if you're signed in. It does not allow ads platform to reach you directly but email address hash is pretty pinpoint. Everyone hash the same way so it's easy for ads platform to track you across the internet. 2. The website loads trackers which monitor your activities across different websites.

That means if you search for something, not even clicking on it, it's possible for ads network to connect your search topic with your spouse.

Re: LG denies TV spying claims, says tracking and snooping concerns 'not true'

#425
I've spent a fair chunk of career designing/building installed audiovisual systems. Displays devices are what terrify me most from a security perspective (and it's a low bar in that world).

They should never be network connected. Ever.

It doesn't matter if they are a domestic or commercial device.

Consider their usage in emergency response centres, situation rooms, infrastructure monitoring, meeting rooms in government offices, boardrooms at publicly listed companies, trading desks, or peoples homes as their source of news.

They have access to every pixel shown. They'll also likely have a full audio feed even if audio is passing through another system. You can have all the security control that you like on upstream systems, strong integrity guarantees, and comprehensive validation of that. This is the device where you are most open to exfil or tampering before it's shown to someone.

Even if the vendor isn't the one trying to actively exploit you they're almost universally running some form of incredibly dated, unpatched, and unhardened OS that is riddled with nightmare material vulnerabilities. Don't even put them on your IoT/untrusted network. If you need to control them, use CEC/DDC or a serial connection. Preferably unidirectional.

Re: LG denies TV spying claims, says tracking and snooping concerns 'not true'

#426

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In any case, "We don't record continuously" is still recording. They should not be recording at all!

Enough with the knee jerk reactions. They have to record in some cases. You don't have to like those features, but plenty of people want those features. - The television has voice control. - The television has a manually triggered speech-to-text feature so you don't have to type with tv remote.

Recording is not the same as listening

Re: LG denies TV spying claims, says tracking and snooping concerns 'not true'

#427

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did we watch a different video? The point of hacking the TV, and making it do bad thing. Was to explain the privacy issues inherent with the hardware capabilites for video and audio recording, which combined with multiple known exploits to gain access. It's a long video, and they cover more than one issue. Please explain what, in particular, you found was misleading.

So a Linux computer with a microphone and network access can send that mocrohpine to the Internet or record it. That’s obvious. That it can scan for WiFi networks is implied by the fact it had WiFi chip, and even exposes that functionality via the front end is also obvious. That it participates in MdNS is known for the fact it’s an mdns target. What would be worthwhile is what is actually sent. The breathless reporti…

All of the things you mention here are fairly obvious. But that doesn't make any of the reporting misleading. The parts that record audio, transcribes audio, scans networks for devices, and perhaps more importantly persists all of these records, combined with easily exploitable vulnerabilities, was one of the issues raised.

> What would be worthwhile is what is actually sent.

For you, perhaps? But again, that was covered in an earlier segment.

You still have to point out the part that was misleading.

Re: LG denies TV spying claims, says tracking and snooping concerns 'not true'

#428

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So they are claiming that ACR is done entirely through audio processing, and no visual data from the screen itself is used? That...doesn't seem plausible. Wrong. They claim it doesn't record video. Recording means saving permanently - live processing is not recording. ACR is processing the video output live. Notice what they don't say at all. ACR is just one type of spying. A completely separate feature records wha…

> processing is not recording Debatable and definitely semantic - at the very least this requires putting the audio into a buffer, so a newly mallocd block of memory. Sure, it’s not a recording in a conventional sense, but it is a copy of data.

This is such a programmer view. No lawyer would think that a graphic equaliser records audio.

Re: LG denies TV spying claims, says tracking and snooping concerns 'not true'

#429

"We own the glass" that's what really stood out to me. I can still disconnect my TV from wifi. But what scares me is when every device comes with their own esim and cellular radio.

The more disturbing thing to me was the talk about "LG households".

Re: LG denies TV spying claims, says tracking and snooping concerns 'not true'

#430

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First time hearing of this

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_rootk... As the saying goes, this is what radicalized me. If any one of us did anything close to this we would be treated like Aaron Swartz and given a 35+ year prison sentence. But in the Sony case the DOJ didn't even threaten criminal charges.

Aaron Swartz's sentence was death FYI.
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