- Users Report Observing LG Gaming Monitors Automatically Installing Unwanted Software on PCs
- LG’s terms of service warn that conversations can be “captured and processed” on TV with the latest version of webOS
- The terms say You must now warn guests that they may be recorded “in accordance with current wiretapping laws”
How smart should a smart TV be? According to LG’s latest TV terms and conditions, the answer is “not smart enough to comply with wiretapping laws”, because that is now the case. your liability if LG picks up a guest’s voice in your home via its AI voice services. However, the situation with LG monitors seems even more dire.
As Gamers Nexus reports, some LG Monitors appear to install adware on Windows PCs without asking permission: in addition to the LG Monitor app installer, they also install McAfee Scam Detector.
LG’s own app requires full access to all system resources, which potentially includes all your online activity, connections, hardware, location and more – while McAfee has long been installed on devices as “bloatware”, and people don’t react positively when they suddenly find it on their PC.
There may be a perfectly innocent explanation for all of this, but when big tech companies get caught doing bad things because they thought they could get away with it, it’s no wonder people assume the worst.
What is causing consternation regarding smart TVs is Part 6(d) of LG Electronics’ new terms of service, titled Voice Recognition and Privacy Compliance.
As Notebookcheck’s Hannes Brecher notes, the section states that it is your responsibility “to obtain all necessary consents from any third parties whose voices may be captured by the product and to inform household members and guests that their voices may be captured and processed, consistent with applicable wiretapping, eavesdropping, and privacy laws.” »
There are three ways to work around this problem. First, you can disable all microphone-based features. This won’t bother some people, but it can be useful, especially asking it for settings you don’t know how to find.
Second, you can avoid installing the latest software, but that means you won’t receive any security updates, which is important (to protect your privacy, ironically, among other things).
Or you can turn off your TV’s connection to the Internet so it can’t send information back, but that obviously makes it less useful and will. Also disable voice commands anyway.
I think the terms and conditions are an attempt to cover the company’s butt rather than anything sinister: the previous paragraph specifically talks about when “a product with voice recognition functionality is in use” and it’s possible that “family members, guests, children, and passersby” can be heard; If you choose to enable AI-based voice features, voices will of course be captured and processed for these features to work.
At the same time, it seems broad enough to allow LG to use people’s voices as AI inputs, rather than just accidental capture. And in the context of what LG is doing with PC monitors (not to mention the very, ahem, AI training casual relationship with consent and copyright), it’s a concern – and internet users increasingly have no tolerance for something like this, as the responses on the original YouTube video from Reddit and Gamers Nexus show.
We’ve reached out to LG for comment on these claims and will update the story as soon as we hear back.
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