TL;DR: Gamers Nexus, working with Level1Techs, found that current LG OLED televisions running webOS keep recording through their built-in microphones with the screen dark and the set apparently off, accumulate audio and text files locally while disconnected, and upload the encrypted payload once the internet returns. The same sets repeatedly scan the local network for smartphones, smartwatches, and other connected devices, harvest internal IP addresses, nearby Wi-Fi names, signal strength, and geolocation, and route some of that to LG Ad Solutions. LG has sold about 216 million smart TVs globally, and LG Ad Solutions says it has access to more than 360 million connected devices in the United States alone. The researchers also identified serious remote-code-execution bugs in webOS, disclosed to LG. LG has not responded to comment requests from Ynet or from the researchers.
The Microphone Stays Live When the Screen Goes Dark
The headline finding from the Gamers Nexus investigation, reported by Ynet's Raphael Kahan this week, is that the built-in microphone on current LG OLED televisions running webOS keeps capturing clear audio while the screen is off and the set looks powered down [1]. The researchers did the simple experiment of pulling the network cable. Audio and text files kept accumulating in local storage during the offline window. Once the link came back, encrypted data uploaded to LG servers.
Ynet's description matches the kind of standby behavior that turns a panel into a microphone-equipped always-on appliance with no front-panel indication that the array is open. The microphone is the same one LG webOS TVs use for voice control. The finding here is that the listening posture persists past the point where any user could reasonably think the TV is paying attention.
Gamers Nexus and Level1Techs tested the sets after LG had spent years insisting its automatic content recognition (ACR) system complies with global privacy rules. LG Ad Solutions says the data it handles is anonymized and used to measure which TV ads aired, how often each household saw them, and whether the household later opened a streaming app [2]. Nothing in that description covers a microphone that keeps listening with the screen dark.
The TV Knows What Else Is on Your Wi-Fi
The other finding is what webOS does on the wire. The operating system repeatedly scans the local network and catalogues devices that have nothing to do with the television's own operation, including smartphones, smartwatches, and other connected household gear [1]. The set records internal IP addresses, the names and signal strengths of nearby Wi-Fi networks, and geolocation, and some of that information is transmitted to LG Ad Solutions, the company's targeted advertising arm.
That is the classic inventory-style fingerprinting the smart-TV industry has been caught doing before. The Texas Attorney General's December 2025 lawsuit against Samsung, Sony, LG, Hisense, and TCL covered screenshot-style ACR rather than microphone recording, but the underlying complaint was that a TV in the living room treats every input and every neighbor on the network as raw material for an advertising profile [3]. The Gamers Nexus work pushes that picture further: the inventory isn't just on screen, it's on the LAN.
How Many Sets
Ynet, citing LG's own figure, reports that LG has sold about 216 million smart televisions globally [1]. That is a cumulative sales figure across years of webOS-equipped sets, not a count of models the team specifically tested. LG Ad Solutions, in a separate disclosure reported by Ynet, says it has access to more than 360 million connected devices in the United States alone, which points well beyond the LG install base and into the broader CTV advertising network the company pitches to brands [1][4].
For comparison, LG's own newsroom confirms that LG Ad Solutions rolled out its proprietary ACR across LG smart TVs in 27 countries across Europe, Africa, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and Australia beginning in September 2022, replacing legacy technology and stating that LG CTV data is available exclusively through LG Ad Solutions [2]. The article does not name every TV model currently active on the network.
The Remote-Code-Execution Bug Behind It
The researchers separately identified what Ynet called serious remote-code-execution vulnerabilities in the webOS operating system and disclosed them to LG through a responsible-disclosure process [1]. A TV that runs a network-scanning service and keeps the microphone live while the screen is dark is also a TV any attacker who lands the right exploit can drive, and the two facts compound. A microphone-equipped appliance on the LAN is the kind of target that earns a place on every security researcher's list, and the LG roll-out in the United States and 27 other countries makes the patch surface that much wider.
The detail that matters is the disclosure route. Reporting RCE to a vendor gives the vendor a window to ship a fix before the bug goes public. Gamers Nexus's published video and the accompanying coverage now put the microphone and the network-scan behavior in that same window. LG has not, as of Ynet's report, answered either the researchers or the press.
What the Privacy Settings Actually Do
LG's webOS exposes a settings tree that includes toggles for ACR and voice-control consent. The Texas AG's complaint is that toggling those settings is not the same as stopping the underlying collection, and that the path to the right screen requires more clicks than the path that enrolled the user in the first place [3]. The Gamers Nexus work, even before today's microphone finding, has documented that the network-scan and microphone behaviors are not framed in setup as either ACR or voice-control features, which is part of why the off-by-default recommendation from the researchers is to disconnect the set from the home internet entirely and use an external streaming box [1].
For owners who cannot or do not want to cut the network, the practical moves are the same ones this site's guide has spelled out: disable ACR on every input source, deny voice-control consent at setup, block the TV's MAC address on the router, or pin the set to a guest VLAN that cannot see the rest of the home. None of these are new advice. The new finding is that the underlying behavior the advice is guarding against now includes a microphone that runs with the screen dark.
What to Watch
Whether LG responds. Ynet says it requested comment and the researchers say theirs did too, with no answer as of publication. A statement that addresses the standby microphone specifically is the most basic test, since ACR is a known practice and the new claim is a microphone recording past the screen-off point.
Any patch or firmware notice. The RCE disclosures put LG on a clock to ship fixes before security researchers publish working code. Owners who care about more than the privacy angle should track LG's support pages and treat any unannounced firmware update with the suspicion applied to any consumer-grade IoT device.
Where regulators go next. Texas's December 2025 lawsuit was filed under the state's deceptive-trade-practice statutes. Microphone recording on a standby set raises a different set of issues under state wiretapping statutes in jurisdictions that require two-party consent, which is the framework most likely to support a criminal referral if a prosecutor decides to take one.
Sources
- Ynet News, Raphael Kahan - Your LG TV may be listening: Researchers uncover audio concerns in current webOS models (September 7, 2026). https://www.ynetnews.com/tech-and-digital/article/bydiqhhume
- LG Newsroom - LG Smart TVs Get a New ACR Solution, Legacy Technology Replaced by LG Ads Solutions (September 15, 2022). https://www.lg.com/global/newsroom/news/media-entertainment-solution/lg-smart-tvs-get-a-new-acr-solution-legacy-technology-replaced-by-lg-ads-solutions/
- State of Surveillance - Texas AG Sued Five TV Makers for Screenshot Surveillance. /news/samsung-smart-tv-acr-surveillance-texas-lawsuit-2026
- New Digital Age, Michael Feeley - LG Smart TVs get Automatic Content Recognition upgrade (September 15, 2022). https://newdigitalage.co/advertising/lg-smart-tvs-get-automatic-content-recognition-upgrade/