LG Responds to Accusations That TVs Are Spying on Users

Image: Cartoon Network

First, let’s start from the beginning. Earlier this week, blogger "DoctorBeet" updated his Blogspot site with an interesting post about his LG Smart TV. Just like units sold by Samsung, LG provides ads on the main landing screen that may or may not have anything to do with apps installed on the TV set. While this isn’t exactly suspicious behavior, he conducted research on the internet and came across a corporate video advertising LG’s data collection practices.

“LG Smart Ad analyses uses favorite programs, online behavior, search keywords and other information to offer relevant ads to target audiences,” he recites. “For example, LG Smart Ad can feature sharp suits to men, or alluring cosmetics and fragrances to women. Furthermore, LG Smart Ad offers useful and various advertising performance reports that live broadcasting ads cannot to accurately identify actual advertising effectiveness.”

That led to some digging through the Smart TV’s options, which revealed a setting called “Collection of watching info” that was switched on by default (note: I couldn’t find anything like this on my Samsung Smart TV -KP). After turning this feature off, he decided to perform traffic analysis to see what was being sent, and quickly discovered that the TV was sending viewing information when the setting was switch both On and Off. Even more, this info was sent back to LG unencrypted and each time he changed the channel.

Seriously, what the hey hey!?!

“It was at this point, I made an even more disturbing find within the packet data dumps.  I noticed filenames were being posted to LG's servers and that these filenames were ones stored on my external USB hard drive,” he writes. To verify this, he created a fake AVI file with a very unique name, and sure enough, the file name was listed on LG’s servers. Sometimes the names of the contents of an entire folder was posted, other times nothing was sent, he says.

“I think it's important to point out that the URL that the data is being POSTed to doesn't in fact exist, you can see this from the HTTP 404 response in the next response from LG's server after the ACK,” he writes. “However, despite being missing at the moment, this collection URL could be implemented by LG on their server tomorrow, enabling them to start transparently collecting detailed information on what media files you have stored.”

So what does LG have to say for itself? Too bad, so sad, essentially. “Unfortunately as you accepted the Terms and Conditions on your TV, your concerns would be best directed to the retailer.  We understand you feel you should have been made aware of these T's and C's at the point of sale, and for obvious reasons LG are unable to pass comment on their actions.”

The best thing for LG Smart TV owners to do is to block specific internet domains in the network’s router. They are listed below:

  • ad.lgappstv.com
  • yumenetworks.com
  • smartclip.net
  • smartclip.com
  • smartshare.lgtvsdp.com
  • ibis.lgappstv.com
  • clonazepam
    The original blog has quite a few updates in its comments section. I suggest reading it all in its entirety.
    Reply
  • Warsaw
    You could do as suggested, or in my mind I will not be buying any LG products as such. We have gotten into such a habit of giving and accepting that our personal information be collected.
    Reply
  • Darkk
    I went ahead and totally blocked my Smart TV from the internet. The website blocks listed above will work for a short while until LG sends out a new firmware update with different websites. So you can block the websites just don't update the firmware.

    Easier for me just block it's access entirely.
    Reply
  • Darkk
    I am disappointed that LG basically said you're SOL without being told prior to purchase. Why is it retailers responsibility to warn the customers?
    Reply
  • JD88
    Again, this falls under the "why do I care who knows what I watch on TV?." If I'm going to get ads, might as well be something I'm interested in based on my past behavior. Making a big deal out of nothing.

    The people upset about this are the same ones who honestly believe the NSA cares what they do. These companies only care about data mining for your behavior patterns so they can sell you ads, not invading your personal life.

    If you wanna be mad about something, be mad about ads being there in the first place.
    Reply
  • brucek2
    Blaming the retailers?!? Is there any feature of the TV this excuse couldn't be used for? "We're sorry you don't like the picture or sound on your TV, the retailer should have handled those concerns for you."

    Reply
  • skit75
    @JD88

    When I am personally compensated for my data/habits, I may not mind so much. Right now, there is a money train that originated at me, of which I have no reward for, however small it may be.

    When Amazon wanted to sell a Kindle with Ads, they gave the end user notice upfront and a discount on the hardware(advertiser subsidized).

    Not to mention the browsing/logging of file-names on external drives attached.

    Reply
  • brucek2
    11995294 said:
    The people upset about this are the same ones who honestly believe the NSA cares what they do
    The NSA may not get a lot of leverage from watching an ordinary person like me, but they can sure get a lot by watching and then extorting every elected official, every judge, every cabinet member, and every CEO as needed for the person in control of the apparatus to get whatever he wants. This is one of the ways a democracy gets undone and/or a totalitarian state maintains itself. J. Edgar Hoover did plenty of all that with a machine a lot less efficient than what the NSA has now.

    Further, even if I am an ordinary person today, I may have ambitions of one day being something more than that. It does not seem right to me that my future opportunities might be limited because I one day watched a movie that is considered to appeal to terrorists, contacted a member of the opposition party, attended a particular place of worship, or even just once dialed a wrong number that happened to be two degrees of separation away from someone who really is a terrorist. Which is exactly the sort of automated filtering a system that NSA's can do to someone, without them ever having known what happened to them.

    If you're not concerned its not that there isn't a potential problem, its that you haven't read much history and aren't thinking big picture.
    Reply
  • JD88
    11995387 said:
    11995294 said:
    Again, this falls under the "why do I care who knows what I watch on TV?." If I'm going to get ads, might as well be something I'm interested in based on my past behavior. Making a big deal out of nothing.

    The people upset about this are the same ones who honestly believe the NSA cares what they do. These companies only care about data mining for your behavior patterns so they can sell you ads, not invading your personal life.

    If you wanna be mad about something, be mad about ads being there in the first place.

    Did you even read the article? Files names are being sent as well... if you're ok with that then you're kind of a dullard.

    How are you still allowed to post here?

    Tell me again why I need to be concerned about file names?

    Anything you host on any server from cloud storage to Facebook is going to be visible to that company that maintains those servers. This is nothing new.

    11995475 said:
    @JD88

    When I am personally compensated for my data/habits, I may not mind so much. Right now, there is a money train that originated at me, of which I have no reward for, however small it may be.

    When Amazon wanted to sell a Kindle with Ads, they gave the end user notice upfront and a discount on the hardware(advertiser subsidized).

    Not to mention the browsing/logging of file-names on external drives attached.

    You are being compensated by paying a lower retail price for the product.

    It's the same model Google, Amazon, and most social media sites use. Provide a free or cheap product/service in exchange for personal information.

    Should you be informed in advance? Of course. As I mentioned in my original post, the anger should be toward the presence of the ads, not the privacy concern. This is part of why I don't watch cable TV. Why should I be forced to watch ads when I already pay hundreds of dollars for service?
    Reply
  • dalethepcman
    This is why people dislike cell phones and facebook and use tube televisions...
    Reply