User Alleges LG TVs Phone Home With Your Viewing Habits

psychonaut writes "Blogger DoctorBeet discovered that his new LG television was surreptitiously sending information about his TV viewing habits, as well as the names of the files he watched on removable media, to LG's servers. There is an undocumented setting in the TV configuration which supposedly disables this behaviour, but an inspection of the network traffic between the TV and the Internet showed that the TV continues to send the data whether or not the setting is disabled. DoctorBeet contacted LG, but they shrugged the matter off, saying that it's a matter between him and the retailer he bought the TV from."

Comments

it's a matter between him and the retailer

[mwvdlee]

it's a matter between him and the retailer he bought the TV from.

So, according to their logic, if I came round and kicked their asses, then that's a matter between them and the shop I bought my shoes from?

Re:it's a matter between him and the retailer

[grasshoppa]

Actually, I think that was just a fancy way of saying "We're not changing it, so return your product...if you can".

Re:it's a matter between him and the retailer

[RearNakedChoke]

I do the same thing - when I buy a house, I never read the terms of the mortgage contract. I just sign on the "give me a house" line. So I'm not bound by the terms of the mortgage since I signed under a duress. It was just what I had to do to buy a house.

Yes, I too buy houses where the purchase contract requires no signature, but merely a mouse click. Or even better, where the contract is INSIDE the house and by the mere fact of removing the key from a sealed envelope and opening the door, I've accepted the mysterious contract that is inside that I did not sign...my opening the door is signature enough.

And if there is some clause in that contract that says the bank will install secret video cameras, too bad, take it up with the previous owner.

Built-in set top box

[benjfowler]

It's a wonder that so many people are using the built-in set top boxes in their so-called smart TVs.

The user interfaces are invariably shit (especially so for any software designed in the far East). And you're stuck with whatever badly designed, misconceived bollocks they force upon you. It's the Sony shit-on-your-paying-customers way of doing things.

Anyway, the whole world is (or should be) treating large displays like TVs as monitors, which screens media pushed from the internet via other devices in your house. DLNA and Chromecast are the way of the future, not built-in TV set top pox.

Re:Built-in set top box

[Jaseoldboss]

It doesn't transmit the currently watched filename, it dumps the folder contents asynchronously when accessing the Smart functions. And not all the time, it's possibly newly added files.
I am the blogger who found this, let me know if you would like verification.

Re:Built-in set top box

[sosume]

I'd rarther reverse engineer the protocol and then build a 'crap stats generator' which sends insane viewing patterns to LG. You know, just to tilt the balance in another direction, to make their entire stats database worthless and get a few managers fired. Not allowed? Collecting data like that is highly illegal and could cost LG their import license.

Re:Built-in set top box

[locopuyo]

Let Little Bobby Tables have control over the remote for a while.

I used to think totalitarianism came from above

[hessian]

Now I realize that it's democratic: it comes from the people.

Your average consumer doesn't care that their TV is phoning home, or Google is tracking them, or that their cell phones are reporting to Amazon.

We used to be afraid of three-letter government agencies but really, the bigger story is that the average person doesn't care if they're spied on. To them it represents greater convenience in lifestyle as products are tailor-made to their kinks and purchasing habits.

When fascism arrives, it will appear on a Harley with a cheeseburger and a credit card, not wrapped in a flag carrying a Bible.

Great thing about being old

[sunsurfandsand]

All I watch are reruns of Law & Order. Guess that's why I keep getting targeted ads for handguns, anti-freeze, bleach, and no-contract cell phones.

No encryption?

[gameboyhippo]

If I were to build a TV that spied on my customers, I would at least encrypt the traffic. By not encrypting the traffic, this opens up the possibility of a user getting revenge by posting misleading data or even something as evil as an XML bomb. Dumb move by LG.