We recently blacklisted some of the IP’s that our LG tv was sending data to. I can’t believe the sheer number of requests logged in just 1 week! And what’s worse is LG is even denying it now
My LGTV from 2008 still works. I’m not sure that it knows what the internet is.
My 2013 LG TV didn’t have an updated firmware so it’s just a piece of shit UI that doesn’t serve ads.
This is not an acurste way to see howvmany requests go out. Since it is blocked it well keep trying since it thinks there is something wrong.
Even so, that’s an insane amount of retries! I guess I would have thought it would retry a few times and end up in a DLQ or something. But perhaps it’s normal for IoT
Ehh, I know the software where I work makes endless attempts to connect too. That isn’t malicious, just shit. 4 year later its still trying again every 30 seconds. Logs are fucking massive.
If you blacklisted the IPs, most of those are probably retries.
Can’t you just block the MAC address in your router? Or does the family like to use the built in apps?
We mainly tried this first out of curiosity, and because the LG tv has some parental controls we use for the kids! But gonna have to find an alternative
Tbf this is far from an “insane” amount for a week.
The request numbers are on the far right, not on the left.
Yes, I am aware. That’s basically nothing, though.
My Roku pings Netflix twice every 9 seconds
Rule 0: don’t get any TV. Just get a office projector, paint your wall white, get some nice sounding speakers and plug your PC to it.
Or, you know, dont connect your TV to the Internet.
Use your Libreelec Raspberry Pi.
There’s TVs that can mesh together with other TVs until they find one that’s actually connected to the Internet, you might not connect your tv to WiFi but your neighbor does
Show me. I want a story about this. Never heard from it except from the comments. In the 2 hour long video they didn’t even say it did this.
When im forced to buy a new TV, I will make sure it works with no network connection at all, or I’m not buying it.
I use NextDNS on my other devices but not on the LG untill now and we use it only for regular tv channels and a android mediabox via hdmi …
Does it help if I put Nextdns on all of them or apps like Netguard? And then block stuff?
Turn off the Wi-Fi in the settings on the LG. The antenna will still work.
The regular channels are “cable” which changed from coax to utp and a provider box … Oh wait am I confusing then streambox from my telecom provider with the LG onboard stuff …
Can a pi Hole fix this? Using a Samsung smart TV
I think so.
It can help, but the only thing that’s guaranteed to stop data exfiltration is disconnecting the WiFi hardware completely
While disconnecting it (wifi and copper) completely, solves the problem, it is not the only thing that’s guaranteed to work. Putting it in an isolated VLAN (or SSID for that matter) and closing down the firewall helps, too While this certainly requires more skill than disconnecting wifi, it still allows to to connect to jellyfin or the like without additional hardware like chromecast.
You can fix it by disconnecting the internet and plugging in your own devices.
Depends, it can autoconnect silently via open wifi networks or other tv’s/iot devices that are friendly. Shitty companies will do anything to get their hand on as much data as they can.
I don’t think LG does that, however you should make sure the Wi-Fi switch is off (don’t just click forget) and if you’re paranoid, you can physically remove the Wi-Fi board.
LG very much tries to connect to random Wifi networks to leak your data, Gamers Nexus talks about it in their recent video.
Here’s an arstechnica article if you don’t got 2 hrs to spare 😅
Excerpt:
YouTube channel Gamers Nexus worked with Level1Techs, a technology-focused YouTube channel, and security researchers to analyze LG TVs’ tracking capabilities. They shared packet captures that pointed to the TVs, including LG’s pricey G5 OLED TV, scanning the LAN for other devices.
“The [G5] crawled our entire network and found dozens of unrelated devices, including smartwatches and phones of our staff who didn’t even know we were working on this,” Steve Burke, Gamers Nexus’ editor-in-chief, said.
LG’s ad business, LG Ad Solutions, has said in recent marketing materials that it can reach 363 million “addressable secondary devices” in the US.
Seconding that rec to disconnect wifi hw.
Some TVs have been found storing audio locally, then sending it if they ever get access to a network. Which can happen accidentally.
Yes, but how many open Wi-Fi signals are around your home? If you have open Wi-Fi signals that are around your home, then that’s also an issue.
What your neighbours do is out of your control, especially if you consider the averge person living next door doesnt think about (or understand) wifi past the very first time they type the password in “to make the internet work”.
Can you see data up/down? be interesting to know(or get more confirmation) if its sending ‘large’ media like audio files, and not just polling for e.g. ad flags, available updates etc
It’s transcribing audio locally (ever when offline) and uploads the text files after it’s reconnected
Also, it can hear like 60 feet and further
Source is the recent Gamers Nexus investigation into LG TVs
Love how these shitboxes can capture up to a screenshot every second, transcribe audio, and network all of that back to the supplier but the goddamn menu takes 5 seconds to open and lags when navigating
Probably why the menu is slow, cpu busy spying on you instead
The poor thing is trapped 😢 there’s barely any data in its bowl
Gotta pull that wifi mobile out.
Samsung does not fall back, my tv it is by far the device that makes more dns requests ar home
Disconnect it from the internet and use your own box or stick.
I can only recommend everybody that has the option for it to run adguard home as a DNS server.
It if you already have a PiHole that can do the same trick. Adguard has support for all DNS protocols and forces itself into windows and android via DoH and DoQuick.
A friend of mine maintains a list of blocklist here: https://github.com/ppfeufer/adguard-filter-list
I run it on my GLiNet router. Are these domains on the default list?
I don’t think so. But this one should help: https://github.com/hagezi/dns-blocklists#native
I run PiHole too, but note Adguard/PiHole do not block DNS over HTTP. If these Smart TV’s want to get nasty, and they already have beyond expectations, they could employ that tech or hardcore IP addresses.
If the Smart TV uses and hardcoded http DNS server, that must be blocked directly, sure. But that scenario is very unlikely.
They already do this. They have fallbacks, but is documented that they do this.
There are blocklists for that also. https://github.com/hagezi/dns-blocklists#bypass
Seems like it might be easiest to set up a dummy server. Let the device think it reached home.
I would think that a CA certificate may be hardcoded? Only way it to block it. Faking it maybe with rooting. And then you can gut it also
Incredible to see them thinking they have any deniability.
Alphonso is a global technology company focused on the intersection of television media and big-data analytics. Alphonso’s patented technology and services rooted in TV data and measurement provide brands and agencies the tools they need to plan, activate, and measure rich interactive connected TV advertising.
LG Ad Solutions, incorporated as Alphonso Inc., is a global leader in advanced advertising for Connected TV and cross-screen devices, driven by our mission to create meaningful connections between brands and their audiences. With a vast network of award-winning LG Smart TVs worldwide, we offer advertisers and content creators broad reach and targeted engagement on the largest screen in the home.
driven by our mission to create meaningful connections between brands and their audiences
Oh fuck off with this.
