Good call! Enjoy the monitors before they totally enshitificates! It’s already starting!
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Can only hope that more people get wise to rampant data collection and market forces create alternatives.
I already hated LG for their horrible software quality, but oh boy..
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Adding to @sp_rtings 's answer:
Smart TV manufacturers and tech companies certainly have noticed trends to use DNS blockers, so unfortunately I suspect situation becomes worse and Pi-hole won’t be sufficient.
- They use hardcoded, public DNS servers to circumvent local DNS blocker => You need to block port 53 (oc with Pi-hole as exception) or redirect requests to it.
- They use DNS over TLD (DoT) => You need to block port 853.
- They use DNS over HTTPS (DoH) => You need to get a blacklist for these servers, as not distinguishable from normal HTTPS traffic; Or get a deep packet inspection firewall.
- They use plain, static IP addresses to circumvent any DNS resolution at all => You need some kind of IP whitelist in the firewall.
These aren’t easy tasks to accomplish technically, as they require knowledge about firewalls. For most people, disconnecting TV and using a Linux box or a Raspberry Pi with Kodi for IPTV and media probably is the easiest solution.
Even then, my suspicion is, that battle continues:
- They try to connect to public or vendor-shared Wi-Fi hotspots, if available => You need to get a Wi-Fi jammer or connect TV to “black hole” Wi-Fi SSID without internet access.
- They install a cheap SIM card into TV or try alternative connection techniques (like Bluetooth tethering) => Let’s call out these suckers publicly.
- They require TV to be internet connected to work at all => Let’s call out these suckers publicly.
Obviously ad-tech industry is creepy enough (= lots of money to earn from our data) to try out the most sophisticated tracking methods.
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Can you post all of the LG, Samsung, and Sony domains and IPs that you’ve confirmed to block tracking and can safely be blocked without affecting the functionality of the TV?
Gamer Nexus has added a new section that is relevant to forums like this one! (that’s right it’s privacy). Reason it’s relevant is because he said it is inspired by the LG Documentary/Investigation
Makes you wonder if he’ll ever make a Privacy Guides account, only time will tell
Can you post all of the LG, Samsung, and Sony domains and IPs that you’ve confirmed to block tracking and can safely be blocked without affecting the functionality of the TV?
Sure!
| Sony Bravia 8 ii | dpn.cid.samba.tv events.cid.samba.tv fling.cid.samba.tv |
|---|---|
| Samsung s95f | log-ingestion.samsungacr.com acr-us-prd.samsungcloud.tv |
| LG G5 | tkacr771.alphonso.tv |
But even better: If you have a Pihole, you can find premade lists that includes a lot more domains that covers a lot more products. The one I have in my sights that seems pretty popular and have the domains I found is this one: GitHub - zachlagden/Pi-hole-Optimized-Blocklists: Pre-built, deduplicated Pi-hole blocklists merged from 35 curated sources — a 2.4M+ domain master list plus advertising, tracking, malware/phishing, suspicious, and NSFW categories. Hosts format, rebuilt weekly. · GitHub. However, I haven’t been able to test it personally yet… I’m in the middle of really slowly upgrading my home lab and haven’t took the 5 minutes to set back up my Pihole as of now.
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Do you use AdGuard DNS, Control D, or NextDNS? I wonder if their blocklists, such as from HaGeZi, block those domains?
I personally use Pihole, and that’s what I leaned on during our study. PiHole allows full customization of the blocklist, so you can add/remove whatever domain you want from the list. I would expect other DNS blocker to let you do so as well. If they don’t, I would expect them to provide preset list of tracking/advertising domains. And if they still don’t, use another DNS blocker!
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The issue is it was shown LG will connect to open wifi. You can’t control whether a neighbor will pop up a open hotspot from their phone
Hi! Do you know where I can find proof of the LG connecting to an open Wi-Fi? I tested it myself over 4 days and couldn’t find any proof of it. I tested it with 6 different brands of smart TVs with an open Wi-Fi network that I monitored with Wireshark. So far, I haven’t been able to spot any device connecting to the open Wi-Fi. There’s a bunch of reason why I couldn’t have seen the connection, so I’m looking for people who were able to confirm the behavior, so I can replicate it myself with all TV brands to spot the bad ones. Thanks!
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My feeling of this is that it’s one of those cases of exaggeration in SOME areas for example the open wi-fi thing where it’d be scanning open wi-fi for geolocation and they’re calling this “connecting” for clickbait, but not actually connecting to it as in establishing an IP address and sending data.
If anything that’s more frustrating as there ARE some very serious privacy issues with LG sets. Enough that I don’t allow mine on the network at all as I don’t trust the “off” switch for ACR and I have my PC hooked up to HDMI. But when there are wild claims it discredits those real concerns.
Probably the same with the mic. Mine is only in my remote, and the 2xAA batteries in it can’t do miracles in terms of all-day monitoring. But even if built into the TV I would bet that it’s just hearing things for a few seconds after what it thought was a wake word - the same reason people accused Apple devices of spying on them after being daft enough to leave “improve siri” and “respond to siri” enabled in the bedroom.
Again there ARE plenty of legit reasons to be concerned about LG’s spyware riddled TVs though.
Are Panasonic still decent, that’s what I had before the smarts.
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Since it’s assumed that many other TV manufactures do this, it’s worth noting that it’s possible not all TVs have microphones based on SIZE.
From a Samsung QLED TV manual, not the website, only TVs 70 inches and larger have a microphone on them to be turned off. Which doesn’t mean you can’t turn it off on the smaller models, that there isn’t one to be turned off (tested on a 60-inch model - I can’t enable the voice modes, it’s off by default). So if you’re not buying a huge TV, these companies don’t seem to care about you 
So that’s… well, not sure what, but it might at least give some of us a bit of cold comfort.
It appears it doesn’t yet. But it should be included in a threat model. LG TV shown scanning LAN for third-party phones and other devices - Ars Technica
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What’s the alternative for streaming then? Attach a Roku to an LG TV and disable the internet connection on the LG TV? Assuming I don’t have a blue ray player or a Jellyfin instance.
Since nobody chime in, I can give you my two cents: It all depends how much compromise you are willing to make and how much control you want over your data.
- The lowest effort thing you can do is leave your TV plugged in, but explore the settings and turn off anything related to data collection. Where the settings are will depend on your settings. You’ll still get Ads with this, but the TV won’t legally be allowed to use, share or sell your data. This should normally be a mandatory step for anyone letting their TV online, but almost nobody takes the 15 minutes needed…
- Use a streaming box and leave your TV offline. From our review, the streaming box with the least privacy invasive policies is the Apple TV, but they still say they will collect and share your data. So, it’s not a perfect privacy option. For your TV, never connecting it to the Wi-Fi is your best bet. Use an ethernet cable when setting it up and unplug it once done, or even better set up your TV as a dumb TV. We also made a guide on how to setup the TV completely offline for most brand here: How To Use A Smart TV Offline - RTINGS.com
- What I use at home: I plug a computer to my TV and set my TV offline. I use a Raspberry Pi with LineageOS which is basically Android on a TV, but without Google if set up correctly. Any old computer/laptop will do, you don’t need a Pi (they have gone up in price a lot since COVID). It let you use Android apps and simplify the controls to navigate apps. That said, using a Linux computer on your TV give one major drawback (that I personally don’t care about): You don’t have access to Widevine DRM, which means you won’t be able to stream the highest quality of the video. This is a deal breaker for many people.
Hope this helps!
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I have a Mac Mini plugged into mine, best of all sorts of worlds but probably not ideal from the sofa.
Worth considering that if they ever do connect to open WiFi or that Ring doorbell botnet (wow that’s insane! I’m glad it’s not in the UK yet, but what a can of worms things like that are) then there’s always the possibility they’re analysing anything and everything on the PC’s display. Especially if ACR is on, which indeed, people should spend the few minutes to turn off.
After discovering this, I sold my LG TV in my room and just bought a upgrade with apple tv as for me it seems the best alternative that is somewhat relatively private.
this is good
you could have also just factory reset the tv, dont connect it to internet and plug your Apple TV just alternative
We also have LibreElec and Stremio with Stremio on Boot or Web
and the most