LG Responds to Accusations That TVs Are Spying on Users
LG SMart TVs supposedly record viewer habits, including external drive files.
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

Easier for me just block it's access entirely.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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?
I didn't read anywhere in the article that these sets were sold at a discount price due to advertiser subsidies.
Also none of us here would have a file named My bank of america password is.... but every single one of us knows someone who would do that. And who do they come to when they have problems? Hmmm?
How are you still allowed to post here?
Because he makes valid points which do not twitch the ban hammer like some of your comments do.
I feel the same way JD does. There's no way the tv was discounted to make up for its spying and neither is my cellphone mind you. If they want to know my habits, pay me for them. If they want me to scan and bag my own groceries, gimme a discount. For the shelf price I can have a cashier do it and not have the headaches associated from the stupid self-service stations.
When you find out google made ten thousand dollars from serving you targeted ads gathered from their services that watch you, dont you think you deserve a piece of that for using their services to begin with?
If you don't get why it's wrong to snoop on your customers without their knowledge, and why it's wrong to not give a f*** when found out, or the fact that this is the environment we live in now...
If you don't get why what the NSA is doing is a disaster waiting to happen...
Then yes, you should go watch TV on your LG and not worry about anything. Don't watch the History Channel, though, you may end up making the connection. Don't do that to yourself, man, they love ya just the way you are.
Want to know about me then ask nicely otherwise stay out of my way and out of my business.
I don't know what's worst, the fact that they continuously and indiscriminately spy on us, or the fact that we let them like it was normal. We are so astute we actually willingly give them all our personal information... Facebook, anyone? Rings a bell?
To make it even worse, it wasn't even your file. Your friend brought over a thumb drive to share some TED talks together. You never saw the damaging file. And for the coup de gras, if you had, you would seen your friend's family reunion, complete with cute toddlers in the kiddie pool, throwing sand at the camera, putting sand down the diaper, and of course eating sand.
Please understand that there need not be a conspiracy to take away your freedom or hurt you. Bad things happen because the info collectors never intended to hurt you and you have nothing to hide, so both parties assume nothing bad will happen. What's all the hoopla if you've nothing criminal to hide? Bad things can happen as an un-intended side effect from normal business and government actions.
How are you still allowed to post here?
Because he makes valid points which do not twitch the ban hammer like some of your comments do.
I feel the same way JD does. There's no way the tv was discounted to make up for its spying and neither is my cellphone mind you. If they want to know my habits, pay me for them. If they want me to scan and bag my own groceries, gimme a discount. For the shelf price I can have a cashier do it and not have the headaches associated from the stupid self-service stations.
When you find out google made ten thousand dollars from serving you targeted ads gathered from their services that watch you, dont you think you deserve a piece of that for using their services to begin with?
@popatim
That wasn't me asking why he is allowed to post here. That was JD88's message that I quoted. Scroll up Moderator ^^