LG defends smart-TV features amid audio surveillance allegations
Recent accusations against the electronics company have raised new questions about the nonconsensual data it harvests.
South Korean consumer-electronics company LG has denied allegations that its smart televisions record ambient conversations, listen while on standby and store recordings for later transmission.
On Wednesday, the company told Al Jazeera that voice data is only recorded when a user presses and holds the voice button on the TV remote or activates its “Hi LG” wake word, after the user has activated the Far-Field voice recognition feature.
“Other than these instances, the TVs do not collect or record ambient conversations,” LG said, adding that voice data is only processed via explicit user commands.
Privacy risks generally stem from poor design and selective disclosure. The more disconcerting threat lies in a compromised device, Vekaria added, which could be made to execute any command its hardware allows.