LG ships its Texas-mandated tracking opt-out switched off by default

LG smart TVs are still charting every device on a home’s Wi-Fi network and capturing microphone audio even while the screen appears off, four months after LG settled with Texas regulators over the same practice, a Gamers Nexus investigation found.

Under the May settlement, LG’s TVs had to get informed consent before they could collect this kind of data.

But the opt-out toggle that would meet that requirement ships disabled by default. The fix a regulator secured never reached buyers of the about 216 million LG TVs sold worldwide.

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Hardware-focused YouTube channel Gamers Nexus conducted the investigation, investing over 500 hours and some $70,000 on the project.

The team worked with reviewer Level1Techs and three independent security researchers, testing retail LG OLED models like the G5.

The team used Wireshark to capture network packets and saw the TVs scan the local network using UPnP, a protocol that lets devices automatically discover each other.

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