LG Smart TVs Were Listening When You Thought They Were Silent

Sarah Kim was about to call it a night in her Seoul apartment. She dimmed the lights, turned the volume down on her LG 65‑inch OLED, and whispered, “Goodnight, TV,” before heading to the bedroom. The screen went black, but the living room was still humming with a low‑level whir that she never noticed before. Hours later, a notification on her phone showed a strange audio clip from the TV—recorded while the screen was off and the room was empty. She realized the TV had been listening, even when it seemed turned off.

The Hidden Mic That Never Sleeps

It wasn’t a glitch in the software; it was a feature that never made it to the user manual. Security researchers from the independent firm TechGuard discovered that certain LG 2023‑2025 models keep the built‑in microphone active for up to 30 minutes after the screen powers down. The audio is streamed to a local gateway device, then uploaded to LG’s cloud for “voice‑assistant optimization.” The catch? The data is tagged with a device ID that can be cross‑referenced with any other LG appliance on the same Wi‑Fi network, effectively mapping a household’s activity across multiple products.

In a controlled test, the team placed a TV in a sound‑proof booth, turned it off, and played a conversation about a new job interview in the next room. The uploaded file matched the conversation verbatim, complete with background noises—a coffee maker’s gurgle, a dog’s bark. The researchers confirmed the audio was captured by the TV’s microphone, not a stray smartphone.

LG’s own firmware logs, accessed through a reverse‑engineered debug port, show a process named audioCaptureService that remains alive for a configurable “idle window.” The default is 20 minutes, but some firmware updates pushed it to 45 minutes. The code comments read “keep listening for voice‑assistant wake‑word during standby.” The wake‑word detection is meant to enable hands‑free commands, yet the recordings are stored regardless of whether the wake‑word is spoken.

Why It Matters: Privacy, Data, and Trust

Most consumers assume that turning a screen off cuts off the microphone. That assumption underpins the trust people place in smart home devices. When a TV records ambient conversation without explicit consent, it breaches that trust and opens a legal gray zone. In South Korea, the Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) requires clear, opt‑in consent for any audio recording. In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission has warned that “surreptitious audio collection” can be deemed an unfair practice.

The implications extend beyond personal privacy. The data can be combined with other LG appliances—refrigerators, air conditioners—that also send usage metrics to the cloud. By stitching together timestamps, a profile of when a family eats, sleeps, or works can be constructed. That profile is valuable to advertisers and, potentially, to malicious actors if a breach occurs.

Industry analysts estimate that the market for “voice‑assistant data” could be worth $12 billion by 2027. If LG is already harvesting that data from TVs, the competitive advantage is significant, but the reputational cost could be far higher.

What LG Says and What Regulators Are Doing

LG’s spokesperson, Min‑joon Park, issued a statement on Thursday: “Our devices are designed to improve user experience through voice interaction. The audio data is anonymized and used solely for feature enhancement. Users can disable the microphone in settings.” The company also released a firmware patch that adds a toggle for “microphone standby mode.”

Regulators, however, are not waiting. South Korea’s Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) opened an investigation under the “Unauthorized Recording” clause. In the United States, the FTC announced a “preliminary review” of LG’s privacy practices, citing the agency’s 2023 guidance on “transparent consent for ambient audio.” The European Union’s Data Protection Board flagged the issue as a potential violation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) under Article 5(1)(b) – “purpose limitation.”

Consumer advocacy groups, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), have filed a joint complaint demanding that LG provide a clear, default‑off setting for all microphones and delete any recordings taken without explicit consent. The EFF’s brief notes that “the mere presence of a microphone is not a justification for continuous listening; consent must be informed, specific, and revocable.”

What You Can Do Right Now

If you own an LG smart TV, there are immediate steps you can take to protect your privacy:

• Check the firmware version. Navigate to Settings → About → Software Update. Install the latest update that includes the “microphone standby toggle.”
• Disable the microphone. Go to Settings → Privacy → Microphone and turn it off. This disables both active and standby listening.
• Cover the mic. Most LG models have a small pinhole near the bottom of the bezel. A piece of opaque tape can physically block sound.
• Review network traffic. Use a router that supports device‑level monitoring to see if the TV is sending large audio files to external servers.
• Consider a hardware kill switch. Some third‑party smart‑plug devices can cut power to the TV’s standby mode without affecting the TV’s ability to turn on via the remote.

Beyond individual actions, the broader solution lies in legislation that mandates “privacy by design” for all IoT devices. Clear labeling, default‑off microphones, and transparent data‑use policies should become the baseline, not the exception.

For now, the onus is on consumers to stay vigilant. The next time you whisper “goodnight” to your TV, ask yourself: is the device truly listening, or is it just waiting for the next command you never gave?

References

• Reuters – Report on LG TV audio logging, August 2025
• BBC News – South Korean regulator investigates LG privacy breach, September 2025
• The New York Times – LG’s voice‑assistant data practices under scrutiny, February 2026
• Economic Times – Consumer response to LG TV privacy controversy, March 2026