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LG smart TVs caught logging audio with screen off and snooping on local devices (www.notebookcheck.net)
submitted 3 weeks ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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An investigation by Gamers Nexus found LG smart TVs sweep local networks to map phones and nearby devices. Tests also showed the sets can capture microphone audio with the screen off — they then upload data once reconnected to the internet.

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[–] 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 child)

I don't know if any TVs are actually using it, but Amazon Sidewalk is a form of LoRa, low power, low bandwidth, long distance communication. It's designed to let non-internet connected devices phone back home. I hear it is very popular with shipping trackers because you can put a small device in a pallet and have it send it's GPS back for free. I'm not sure it would support the GBs of data TVs are phoning home with each month, but it could certainly send some data home.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 weeks ago

    Yup, this can get used for very scary stuff. As you said it's low bandwidth, but since edge devices are more powerful that's less of a limitation than you might think. A TV could easily do speech to text, rough ACR, and device fingerprinting all locally without any internet connection, then summarize and compress that data for a daily or weekly upload. No need to send the large data itself, just a a small report that's a few KB in size.

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