I didn't realize my LG TV was spying on me until I turned off Live Plus

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

TV spying, ACR, and Live Plus

  • Live Plus on LG TVs uses automatic content recognition (ACR) to scan everything on screen and feed “personalized” ads and recommendations.
  • Commenters note this isn’t unique to LG; most major TV brands do similar tracking.
  • There’s skepticism that toggling Live Plus “off” truly stops data collection; many assume it may just hide visible personalization while still sending telemetry.

Opt-out toggles vs. keeping TVs offline

  • Strong consensus among privacy‑minded commenters: never connect the TV to the internet, treat it purely as a dumb display.
  • Concerns that updates can re‑enable tracking settings or add new “features” like Copilot or more ads.
  • Some mention dark patterns at setup (multiple “agreements”, only some optional) and settings that used to reset to “on” after firmware updates.
  • A few push back, saying at least there is a setting and you can decline optional agreements.

Network controls and technical countermeasures

  • Many use Pi-hole, firewalls, or router rules to block TV DNS/traffic; some report the TV as a top generator of blocked requests.
  • Advice includes: force all devices to use Pi-hole via DHCP, block outbound UDP 53, or fully airgap the TV.
  • Others worry Wi‑Fi hardware, Wi‑Fi Direct, or future cellular/mesh schemes could bypass home-network controls, though concrete evidence for TVs doing this is not presented and called “unclear.”

External devices: which “smart” box to trust?

  • Popular pattern: TV offline + dedicated streamer (Apple TV, Android TV box, HTPC, mini‑PC, Raspberry Pi, Vero, etc.).
  • Many recommend Apple TV as the “least bad” mainstream option; others prefer rooted/custom Android TV or a Linux HTPC for maximum control and ad‑blocking.
  • Roku, Fire TV, and Chromecast are criticized for ad‑driven business models and aggressive ACR.
  • There’s disagreement over Apple’s privacy posture: some see hardware‑margin incentives as protective; others describe macOS/iOS as opaque, data‑hungry black boxes.

Broader critique: surveillance as default

  • Commenters see TVs as one instance of a wider pattern: every “smart” device (TVs, fridges, thermostats, cars) ships with tracking wrapped as “personalization.”
  • Many lament that non‑smart TVs are scarce, consumers often don’t care, mainstream media under‑covers the issue, and ad‑supported, data‑extractive models have become the default architecture of consumer tech.