LG is responding following a privacy accusation made against the company that it allegedly uses its smart TVs to spy on its users. The original accusation, made by the YouTube channel, Gamers Nexus, claimed that LG TVs can and are engaged in the collection of sensitive user information in a report that has since made the rounds online. In its statement, LG has declared that such reporting has led to “misconceptions about how smart TVs work,” while refuting many of the claims made in the original report.
In its initial report, Gamers Nexus alleged that LG smart TVs can record private conversations even when no wake word has been spoken. Additionally, the video accused the company of collecting sensitive data such as IP addresses, the geographic location of the TV and nearby Wi-Fi networks, as well as the names of all connected devices.
The report also included demonstrations of these claims in conjunction with Level1 Techs and independent cybersecurity researchers.
The report was followed by a massive uproar online with many consumers voicing their concerns over the potential invasiveness of smart TVs. Additionally, prior statements made by LG had begun to be picked over by those online, leading to greater furor and dissatisfaction.
In its response, LG stated that “recent media coverage may have contributed to misconceptions about how LG smart TVs work,” with the company asserting that “LG smart TVs do not continuously record or transmit users’ conversations.”
“Speech-to-text processing begins only if a user activates a voice interaction through a supported wake-word feature or by pressing the voice (or AI) button on the remote control,” LG continues. “Audio used for wake-word detection is processed locally on the TV and, if no wake word is detected, audio is not converted to text, stored, or transmitted.
“Voice-recognition results and related technical logs may be generated as part of processing a voice command. These records are associated with specific voice interactions and do not indicate continuous recording of conversations occurring outside an active voice recognition session.”
The remainder of the response goes further into the functioning of the TVs in addition to clarifying data sharing policies and security measures.
The full privacy statement from LG can be found here.
Regardless of whether who is right in this circumstance, the discussion overall sours the public perception of smart TVs in many ways. And in much the same vein as one bad smart home experience can negatively impact the perception of the industry at large, so too can worries of privacy impact how much technology prospective integration clients will let into their homes.
As public accusations such as this make the rounds, it behooves integrators to be able to navigate conversations regarding data privacy with clients.
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