LG TVs Are Recording Audio Even When They Appear to Be Off
Posted: 09 Sep 2026, 16:11
Gamers Nexus' full investigation - conducted alongside Level1Techs and independent security researchers - looked at LG Smart TVs and found some extremely concerning behavior involving microphone recording, network surveillance and advertising-related data collection.
The most disturbing finding is that LG TVs were observed capturing microphone audio while the screen was in standby and appeared to be turned off. Even more concerning, the researchers found that the TV could continue collecting audio while disconnected from the internet, storing the data locally and attempting to upload it once connectivity was restored. The Verge has a good breakdown of the investigation.
And this isn't simply a case of the TV listening for a voice command. The investigation found evidence of audio being captured beyond what you would reasonably expect from a device sitting in standby.
That's particularly uncomfortable when you consider that a television is sitting in one of the most private areas of your home. It's one thing for a smart speaker to listen for a wake word when you've deliberately enabled that functionality. It's another thing entirely for a television to retain the capability to record ambient audio while apparently powered off.
The investigation also uncovered another worrying behavior: LG TVs scanning the local network for other devices. Phones, smartwatches and other hardware connected to the same network could reportedly be identified, while the television could also collect information about nearby Wi-Fi networks.
This ties into LG's advertising business. LG Ad Solutions openly markets its ability to understand households and the devices associated with them. Gamers Nexus' investigation suggests that LG's television ecosystem can build a surprisingly detailed picture of what is happening around the TV, rather than simply knowing what is being watched on the screen.
There is also the issue of Automatic Content Recognition (ACR). ACR isn't unique to LG - other smart-TV manufacturers use similar technology - but it can fingerprint the content being displayed, including content coming through external inputs such as HDMI. In other words, buying a TV doesn't necessarily mean that using it as a dumb display makes it behave like a dumb display.
And this is where I think the bigger issue lies.
We've gradually accepted the idea that a television should have microphones, cameras, network access, advertising software, telemetry, content recognition and the ability to profile the household around it.
At some point, we stopped buying televisions and started buying advertising platforms with screens attached.
LG, for its part, disputes the interpretation of the findings. The company has said that its TVs do not collect, record or transmit ambient conversations unless voice functionality has intentionally been activated, and that audio used for wake-word detection is processed locally and deleted if no wake word is detected. Ars Technica has published LG's response alongside its reporting on the investigation.
That's an important distinction to acknowledge. The investigation shows what the researchers observed on the tested hardware; LG disputes that this represents its intended or normal behavior.
But that's arguably what makes the situation even more concerning.
If the behavior being demonstrated is unintended, why does the software have the capability to do it in the first place?
And if it is intended behavior under particular circumstances, why isn't that made extremely obvious to consumers?
A television shouldn't require someone to spend hours examining packet captures, firmware behavior and filesystem logs to determine whether it is actually behaving like a privacy-respecting device.
Gamers Nexus has also documented other concerns surrounding LG hardware this year, including the controversy over software being pushed onto PCs through Windows Update when LG displays are connected. Their broader investigation into consumer data harvesting is worth following as well: Gamers Nexus' Data Dragnet project.
The most disturbing finding is that LG TVs were observed capturing microphone audio while the screen was in standby and appeared to be turned off. Even more concerning, the researchers found that the TV could continue collecting audio while disconnected from the internet, storing the data locally and attempting to upload it once connectivity was restored. The Verge has a good breakdown of the investigation.
And this isn't simply a case of the TV listening for a voice command. The investigation found evidence of audio being captured beyond what you would reasonably expect from a device sitting in standby.
That's particularly uncomfortable when you consider that a television is sitting in one of the most private areas of your home. It's one thing for a smart speaker to listen for a wake word when you've deliberately enabled that functionality. It's another thing entirely for a television to retain the capability to record ambient audio while apparently powered off.
The investigation also uncovered another worrying behavior: LG TVs scanning the local network for other devices. Phones, smartwatches and other hardware connected to the same network could reportedly be identified, while the television could also collect information about nearby Wi-Fi networks.
This ties into LG's advertising business. LG Ad Solutions openly markets its ability to understand households and the devices associated with them. Gamers Nexus' investigation suggests that LG's television ecosystem can build a surprisingly detailed picture of what is happening around the TV, rather than simply knowing what is being watched on the screen.
There is also the issue of Automatic Content Recognition (ACR). ACR isn't unique to LG - other smart-TV manufacturers use similar technology - but it can fingerprint the content being displayed, including content coming through external inputs such as HDMI. In other words, buying a TV doesn't necessarily mean that using it as a dumb display makes it behave like a dumb display.
And this is where I think the bigger issue lies.
We've gradually accepted the idea that a television should have microphones, cameras, network access, advertising software, telemetry, content recognition and the ability to profile the household around it.
At some point, we stopped buying televisions and started buying advertising platforms with screens attached.
LG, for its part, disputes the interpretation of the findings. The company has said that its TVs do not collect, record or transmit ambient conversations unless voice functionality has intentionally been activated, and that audio used for wake-word detection is processed locally and deleted if no wake word is detected. Ars Technica has published LG's response alongside its reporting on the investigation.
That's an important distinction to acknowledge. The investigation shows what the researchers observed on the tested hardware; LG disputes that this represents its intended or normal behavior.
But that's arguably what makes the situation even more concerning.
If the behavior being demonstrated is unintended, why does the software have the capability to do it in the first place?
And if it is intended behavior under particular circumstances, why isn't that made extremely obvious to consumers?
A television shouldn't require someone to spend hours examining packet captures, firmware behavior and filesystem logs to determine whether it is actually behaving like a privacy-respecting device.
Gamers Nexus has also documented other concerns surrounding LG hardware this year, including the controversy over software being pushed onto PCs through Windows Update when LG displays are connected. Their broader investigation into consumer data harvesting is worth following as well: Gamers Nexus' Data Dragnet project.