The Weekly Breach Breakdown Podcast: Is Your TV Watching You? — Inside LG's Terms of Service — S7E23

Welcome to the Identity Theft Resource Center's Weekly Breach Breakdown for July 31, 2026. I'm Tatiana Cuadras, Communications Assistant for the ITRC. Thanks to SentiLink for their continued support of the podcast and the ITRC . Each week, we look at the most recent events and trends related to data security and privacy.

This week's topic hits a little close to home, literally. We'll be talking about our own devices – and how they may be listening to our conversations without our knowledge. Let's start with the TV in your living room, you know, the one you're probably sitting in front of right now. According to Notebook Check , the Terms of Service for South Korean electronics giant LG allows the company to monitor exactly how its products are used and have the ability to share that information with third-party services.

One of the features of LG’s current class of smart TVs allows the company to record and analyze conversations picked up by the TVs' microphones. Why would they possibly need to do that, you ask? Well, LG claims that this is in the name of "improving" their artificial intelligence services. Wait, so who's actually responsible if something goes wrong?

You are. According to LG’s Terms of Service, the owner of the smart TV is responsible for ensuring that no wiretapping or surveillance occurs, and that data protection laws are not violated. Taken to an extreme interpretation, that means if you own one of these TVs, you are expected to tell every guest who enters the proximity of the smart TV that they might be recorded. If anyone objects to this, which is understandable, you’d have to go in and manually turn off the microphone and voice features yourself.

Or you could just object on your own behalf and permanently turn off that feature. Now, if you own an older LG smart TV and aren’t too thrilled about being listened to, don't install new webOS updates on your TV. The only issue with this is that your TV then stops receiving security patches, which eventually trades one risk for another, which is not exactly a win. Unfortunately, LG’s smart TV is not the only privacy concern for its users.

An investigation by Gamers Nexus, involving LG monitors, found that some newer LG UltraGear and UltraFine monitors automatically install software without your permission the moment they're connected to a Windows PC. What exactly is getting installed? Two things: the LG Monitor App Installer and McAfee Scam Detector. According to its own documentation, the LG Monitor App Installer has access to "all system resources" and can collect data on your location, hardware, online activity, account logins and even contact information.

This isn't limited to brand-new monitors; some slightly older models also added this feature after a firmware update. It's a good reminder that data collection can come from the places you least expect and that it's important to be aware of privacy risks. Surveillance risks can come from your Friday movie nights at home, the monitor sitting on your desk and, most importantly, from a terms of service page that the majority of us skip. If you want to know more about how to protect your personal information and identity, or if you think your image, information or identity has been misused, you can speak with an expert ITRC advisor on the phone, chat live on the web, or exchange emails during our normal business hours (Monday through Friday, 6 a.m.

to 5 p.m. Pacific time). Just visit idtheftcenter.org to get started. Thanks again to SentiLink for their support of the ITRC and this podcast .

Please hit the like button for this episode and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. We'll be back next week with a new episode of the Weekly Breach Breakdown . I'm Tatiana Cuadras. Until then, thanks for listening.