lg electronics

LG is once again fending off allegations that its expensive consumer hardware gathers extensive information about users and their surroundings for the benefit of its advertising business. The latest concerns center on smart TVs that researchers claim continued capturing audio after voice recognition was activated, including while the display was in standby. The claims once again come from the folks behind the Gamers Nexus YouTube channel, which also claimed in July that LG's monitors were surreptitiously installing adware using an automatic Windows process. After inspecting the TVs' network traffic and internal data, editor-in-chief Stephen Burke said the team found plaintext transcripts generated from audio captured by the TV, along with other information. The Gamers Nexus crew said it observed the TV collecting IP addresses, location data, and the names, signal strengths, and channel numbers of nearby Wi-Fi networks. The TV also enumerated devices on the local network that were not paired with it, including smartphones, watches, routers, thermostats, air purifiers, server baseboard management controllers, and PCs. Burke added that Wireshark packet capture analysis revealed such a large quantity of private data that it couldn't be displayed in the video, and that this was all native behavior from LG's equipment. He said the findings represented "an egregious invasion of privacy." Burke and company also claimed that the TVs could continue capturing audio while disconnected from the internet, store it locally, and transmit related data after connectivity was restored. Burke said the team was working with security researchers to disclose vulnerabilities responsibly, including an alleged remote code execution flaw. The Register has asked LG for comment. LG previously told other publications that its TVs do not "collect, record, or store ambient conversations," and that voice recognition is an optional feature that processes voice data only when activated by the user. LG's relationship with ads LG does not hide the fact that its hardware incorporates technology from its advertising business, LG Ads Solutions. In 2022, it announced that automatic content recognition (ACR) technology previously limited to its US smart TVs would be deployed in sets sold across 27 countries, with the resulting insights available through its advertising business. LG said the ACR data was anonymized and handled in accordance with privacy regulations. Its advertising customers could use the resulting insights to measure campaign effectiveness and whether an ad led to registrations for an app or service. LG is not alone. Most major smart TV manufacturers deploy some form of ACR in their hardware, although the controls available to users vary by vendor. The source of so much frustration, however, is that manufacturers are not forthcoming with consumers at the point of purchase about the extent to which their data is collected or how. Generating audio transcripts while the display is in standby is not something LG highlights in its product descriptions or marketing materials. According to Gamers Nexus, however, that is what its testing uncovered. Instead, the company's website describes its TVs' voice features using terms such as "Intelligent Voice Recognition" and "Clear Voice Pro." Customers who go digging for more details must navigate to an "LG Privacy" link most of the way down a lengthy product page. From there, they must sift through four links to understand its privacy policies more fully, although neither the documents nor the main product page references LG Ads Solutions. Gamers Nexus claims LG sends all the data its hardware collects to the ads unit, which claims in its marketing materials that customers can "own the living room," having their ads appear on devices inside "the connected LG household." LG Ads Solutions' official fact sheet, which predictably requires you to enter your personal and contact details to access, states that there are 49 million LG TVs in the US powered by its webOS, but the company's total reach extends to 363 million "addressable secondary devices." To potential customers, it promises "precision targeting at the device level, across households." ACR and other data-collection technologies have become commonplace across the smart TV market. Research suggests that many consumers are willing to trade their data for tangible financial savings, but the privacy implications are compounded when you consider these devices can be found mounted in boardrooms and doctors' offices. Twice bitten The allegations come less than two months after Gamers Nexus reported that connecting certain LG monitors to an online Windows 11 PC could trigger installation of the LG Monitor App through Windows' device metadata system. The behavior depended on the user selecting Recommended Settings during Windows setup and being signed into the Microsoft Store. As we reported at the time, the LG Monitor App Installer has limited utility and displayed pop-up promotions for McAfee. LG told us: "LG Electronics reiterates that McAfee is not installed automatically and is never installed without the user's explicit consent." ®

Mentre le autorità statunitensi stanno valutando la possibilità di vietare l’importazione di robot di produzione cinese, l’azienda americana Nvidia collabora attivamente con gli sviluppatori locali, fornendo loro non solo hardware ma anche software. I figli del fondatore di Nvidia partecipano attivamente a questo processo. Lo ha ricordato l’edizione The Wall Street Journal , segnalando separatamente che il business legato all'”IA fisica” frutta a Nvidia circa 10 miliardi di dollari di fatturato annuo. Secondo le parole del CEO e fondatore Jensen Huang, nei prossimi dieci anni il fatturato di Nvidia in questo settore crescerà di dieci volte. Oltre ai chip specializzati come Thor , utilizzati dai principali produttori cinesi di robot antropomorfi come Unitree, l’azienda americana fornisce loro anche software per lo sviluppo di modelli IA applicativi. Questi ultimi sono offerti con pesi aperti, il che semplifica notevolmente l’accesso degli sviluppatori a tale software. Come osserva la fonte, i figli di Huang sono attivamente coinvolti nella promozione dei prodotti e dei servizi dell’azienda di loro padre nel settore della robotica. La figlia Madison dirige il servizio marketing in questo ambito, mentre il figlio Spencer supervisiona lo sviluppo dei prodotti e tiene già conferenze in eventi di settore. Nel mese appena trascorso, Madison Huang non solo ha visitato l’azienda LG Electronics in Corea del Sud, ma ha partecipato anche alla Fiera Mondiale dei Robot a Pechino , dove è stata vista vicino agli stand delle aziende cinesi che utilizzano la piattaforma Nvidia nei loro sviluppi. Attualmente, in Cina viene prodotta circa il 90% di tutti i robot antropomorfi, quindi Nvidia non può permettersi di ignorare le esigenze del mercato locale. Le autorità cinesi mirano all’autosufficienza dell’industria robotica locale, ma in termini di componenti e software di controllo, i produttori di robot cinesi dipendono ancora fortemente da Nvidia. Almeno, tutto ciò è necessario nella fase di sviluppo e addestramento dei robot. Nei laboratori Nvidia in Cina e negli Stati Uniti sono presenti campioni di robot antropomorfi di produzione cinese, utilizzati per condurre esperimenti. Nvidia pubblica lavori scientifici di ricercatori cinesi nel campo della robotica e li coinvolge nella collaborazione. Contemporaneamente, si espande il personale di Nvidia in Cina, che si occupa di robotica e autopilota per i trasporti. A luglio, Jensen Huang ha ammesso che l’autopilot sarà il primo campo di applicazione della robotica che avrà un impatto significativo sul mercato e possiederà un serio potenziale economico. L'articolo Il capo di Nvidia affida al figlio e alla figlia la guida di progetti di robotica proviene da Red Hot Cyber .

The home appliance giant LG Electronics USA said this week it plans to suspend any apps built for its smart TVs that turn one’s television into an always-on residential proxy node. The move comes less than a month after researchers found that more than 42 percent of games and other apps available for download on LG’s webOS store allow unknown third-parties to route their Internet traffic through a user’s TV. On July 2, we featured research by the security firm Spur that examined the prevalence of residential proxy software development kits (SDKs) in smart TV apps. Spur found more than 42 percent of apps available for download on LG smart TVs include SDKs that turn one’s television in a proxy node indefinitely, and that more than a quarter of the apps made for Samsung’s Tizen operating system had similar residential proxy components. Responding to questions about Spur’s research, LG Senior Vice President John Taylor told KrebsOnSecurity the company was working with app developers to remove the residential proxy option from their apps on the webOS platform. Developers that fail to comply, he said, will find their apps suspended. “A residential proxy network is not an intended use for LG smart TVs, and LG Electronics is working with developers to remove the residential proxy option from their apps on the webOS platform,” Taylor said. “If this option is not removed, these apps will be suspended.” Taylor said LG is committed to keeping residential proxy networks out of its smart TV apps going forward, and that the company’s review of those apps is “well underway now.” “As part of our ongoing efforts to enhance platform quality and the user experience, LG will continue to strengthen our evaluation process for developer-submitted apps, including those that incorporate residential proxy SDKs,” Taylor wrote in an emailed statement. App makers looking for ways to monetize their creations can turn to residential proxy providers, which pay developers to include SDKs that turn the user’s device into a residential proxy node that is rented to paying customers. In the case of LG and Samsung smart TVs, Spur found residential proxy SDKs bundled with everything from simple games like Pac-Man to screensavers and file utilities. Bright Data accounted for a majority of proxy SDKs across both Samsung and LG smart TVs. In a statement shared with KrebsOnSecurity, Bright Data said its network is built on consent and responsibility and operates by LG and Samsung terms. “Every peer opts in through a dedicated screen and receives value in return; every customer is vetted, and our practices have now undergone a second independent audit by PwC,” the statement reads. “We remain committed to an open, transparent internet where legitimate businesses, researchers, and institutions can responsibly access data that lives in the public domain.” Bright Data and other proxy providers named in Spur’s report all say they follow rigorous know-your-customer processes to validate legitimate uses of their services, which is often heavily tied to content-scraping activities by said customers. The proxy companies also say they incorporate technological countermeasures to prevent proxy service customers from being able to interact with and control other devices on the proxy user’s local network. Spur argues the problem is not that residential proxy networks exist, but rather that they are being embedded at scale in devices that most consumers do not think of as computers and are not equipped to audit. “A one-time consent prompt buried in a TV app is not a substitute for meaningful transparency, ongoing control, and platform oversight,” Spur’s Trevor Sutter wrote. “The risk is amplified when consent comes from individuals within the household who use the device but shouldn’t give consent, such as minors.” LG’s announcement that it is culling residential proxy SDKs from its app store is welcome news, but the company recently came under fire for another questionable partnership: Pimping McAfee security products via software drivers included in its high-end LCD monitors. Earlier this week, the Youtube channel Gamers Nexus showed that certain LG LCD monitors will automatically install an app that promotes paid McAfee antivirus subscriptions, and that the app arrives through Windows Update without an approval prompt. Update, July 22, 1:06 p.m. ET: Added statement from Bright Data.

The Texas Attorney General sued five major television manufacturers, accusing them of illegally collecting their users' data by secretly recording what they watch using Automated Content Recognition (ACR) technology. The lawsuits target Sony, Samsung, LG, and China-based companies Hisense and TCL Technology Group Corporation. Attorney General Ken Paxton's office also highlighted "serious concerns" about the two Chinese companies being required to follow China's National Security Law, which could give the Chinese government access to U.S. consumers' data. According to complaints filed this Monday in Texas state courts, the TV makers can allegedly use ACR technology to capture screenshots of television displays every 500 milliseconds, monitor the users' viewing activity in real time, and send this information back to the companies' servers without the users' knowledge or consent. Paxton's office described ACR technology as "an uninvited, invisible digital invader" designed to unlawfully collect personal data from smart televisions, alleging that the harvested information then gets sold to the highest bidder for ad targeting. "Companies, especially those connected to the Chinese Communist Party, have no business illegally recording Americans' devices inside their own homes," Paxton said. "This conduct is invasive, deceptive, and unlawful. The fundamental right to privacy will be protected in Texas because owning a television does not mean surrendering your personal information to Big Tech or foreign adversaries." Spokespersons for Sony, Samsung, Hisense, and TCL were not immediately available for comment when contacted by BleepingComputer earlier today. An LG spokesperson told BleepingComputer that, "As a matter of policy, LG Electronics USA does not generally comment on pending legal matters such as this." Almost a decade ago, in February 2017, Walmart-owned smart TV manufacturer Vizio paid $2.2 million to settle charges brought by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and the New Jersey Attorney General that it collected viewing data from 11 million consumers without their knowledge or consent using a "Smart Interactivity feature. The two agencies said that since February 2014, Vizio and an affiliated company being watched, including content from cable, streaming services, and DVDs. According to the complaint, Vizio also attached demographic information (such as sex, age, income, and education) to the collected data and sold it to third parties for targeted advertising purposes. In August 2022, the FTC published a consumer alert on securing Internet-connected devices, advising Americans to adjust the tracking settings on their smart TVs to protect their privacy. Update December 16, 12:43 EST: Added LG statement. Overall prevention scores can hide what happens after initial access. Once attackers are using valid credentials, prevention drops sharply. The Blue Report 2026 measures defenses technique by technique across 338 million simulations run in customer production environments. Get the report