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Companies tell you what they think of their customers through their behavior, and LG’s behavior increasingly looks like contempt.
LG sells expensive televisions and then operates an advertising business built around extracting additional value from what happens on those screens. Its own advertising division boasts about viewing behavior collected “at the glass level,” sells home-screen advertising, categorizes viewers according to subscriptions, purchases, games, advertisements viewed, and location, and tells marketers to “Own the living room.”
Texas sued LG over Smart TV privacy practices. LG eventually agreed to obtain informed consent before collecting ACR viewing information and to provide clearer disclosures and a simpler opt-out.
Researchers then showed LG TVs crawling local networks and discovering unrelated phones, smartwatches, and other devices. LG acknowledges the network-scanning functionality and says it exists for smart-device connectivity.
And the attitude is not confined to televisions. Certain LG monitors installed LG software through Windows Update without an LG-specific prompt, after which the software pushed McAfee advertisements onto customers’ computers. Microsoft had to get involved, and LG agreed to disable the McAfee pop-up.
At some point, the pattern becomes impossible to ignore.
LG seems to look at a customer who has already handed it thousands of dollars and ask one question:
What else can we extract from this person?
That is why I say LG loathes its customers.
Because it repeatedly behaves as though respecting them is less important than monetizing them.
LG Apparently Thinks Selling You the Product Is Only the Beginning
There used to be a wonderfully simple relationship between a consumer-electronics company and its customer.
The company made a television.
You bought it.
The company got its money.
You got the television.
Everybody went home.
LG has helped replace that straightforward transaction with something much uglier. A modern LG Smart TV remains connected to the manufacturer through webOS, software updates, cloud services, advertising systems, optional data agreements, Automatic Content Recognition, device discovery, and other connected features.
The sale is no longer the end of the relationship.
It is the installation.
You buy the screen and put it inside your home. LG then retains control of the operating system sitting behind it and operates an advertising business designed to extract continuing commercial value from that position.
That is an incredible arrangement for LG.
It is considerably less impressive for the person who already paid for the television.
LG’s Own Advertising Website Tells You Exactly How It Sees You
The most damning criticism of LG does not come from privacy activists.
It comes from LG.
LG Ad Solutions says its first-party Automatic Content Recognition data provides information about viewing behavior “at the glass level.” It advertises the ability to target viewers according to shows, networks, apps, streaming services, subscriptions, activations, cancellations, purchases, rentals, advertising exposure, game platforms, specific game titles, viewing habits, and location.
LG even divides viewers into commercially useful categories such as cord cutters, heavy viewers, light viewers, ad skippers, and app loyalists.
That is not customer service.
That is audience monetization.
The person on the couch thinks they are watching television.
LG’s advertising operation sees a stream of behavior that can be classified, segmented, measured, and sold against.
And LG is proud enough of this capability to advertise it publicly.
Read LG Ad Solutions’ own description of its ACR targeting technology
“Own the Living Room” Is What LG Tells Advertisers
LG’s advertising website gets even more revealing.
Under its cross-device advertising pitch, LG tells marketers to:
“Own the living room.”
Then it explains that advertisers can surround the connected LG household beyond the television across mobile phones, tablets, and desktop devices.
Think about how disgusting that language sounds from the customer’s side.
It is your living room.
You bought the television.
You bought the phone.
You bought the computer.
You pay the internet bill.
Yet LG’s advertising arm is selling someone else the fantasy that they can “own” this space commercially.
This is the kind of phrase that reveals more than any privacy policy ever could.
LG does not merely see a television.
It sees a foothold.
Read LG’s “Own the living room” pitch to advertisers
A Company That Respected Customers Would Not Need a Government Settlement to Improve Consent
LG now says its optional ACR, voice-recognition, and interest-based advertising functions are off by default and require separate consent. The company’s September 2026 privacy statement emphasizes user choice, transparency, and privacy controls.
That is better than the alternative.
It also did not appear out of nowhere.
Texas sued LG over its Smart TV privacy practices. In May 2026, the Texas Attorney General announced that LG had agreed not to use ACR technology to collect consumers’ viewing information without informed consent.
The agreement also required LG to display a clearer disclosure explaining how viewing data could be collected and used and to give users a clear and simple way to opt out.
Those words matter.
Informed.
Clear.
Simple.
Those are not exotic privacy principles. They are the absolute minimum.
LG should have treated customers that way because they were customers, not because a state government was breathing down its neck.
Read the Texas Attorney General’s LG privacy settlement announcement
LG Wants Credit for Giving You a Choice After Building the Surveillance Machine
This is one of the most irritating parts of modern corporate privacy.
Companies build extraordinarily sophisticated data systems and then act as though the existence of an opt-out makes the whole arrangement consumer-friendly.
LG’s current privacy statement proudly explains that ACR is optional.
Great.
Why is the television manufacturer in the behavioral-advertising business in the first place?
Why did a premium TV need to become capable of identifying viewing behavior at the glass level?
Why does LG Ad Solutions need audience categories for people who cancel streaming services, play particular games, see particular ads, or live in particular ZIP codes?
Why does the home screen of hardware you already purchased need to become advertising inventory?
The privacy debate is always pushed downstream toward settings.
Turn this off.
Opt out of that.
Reject this agreement.
Find that menu.
The more fundamental question is almost never asked:
Why was this garbage built into my television at all?
The Network Scanning Shows the Same Arrogance
Then we get to the local network.
Researchers working with Gamers Nexus and Level1Techs showed LG televisions scanning the LAN for other devices. Ars Technica reported that the tested LG G5 found dozens of unrelated devices, including smartphones and smartwatches belonging to staff who did not even know they were part of the experiment.
LG acknowledges that its TVs scan for compatible devices on the same network. The company says the feature exists for connectivity, content sharing, and smart-home functionality.
There are legitimate reasons for a Smart TV to discover another device.
That does not mean a television should be broadly curious about everything it can find.
A company that respected the owner would start from the principle of minimum access.
You want to connect your Xbox?
Fine. Find the Xbox.
You want to cast from your phone?
Fine. Find the phone.
The television does not need to behave like the nosy neighbor of your LAN.
Read Ars Technica’s report on LG televisions scanning local networks
LG’s Privacy Defense Is Supposed to Reassure You. It Mostly Shows How Much the TV Is Doing.
LG published a detailed statement on September 12, 2026, responding to the latest criticism.
The statement says LG TVs do not continuously record or transmit conversations. It explains wake-word processing, voice recognition, ACR, device discovery, nearby-network processing, optional advertising functions, and privacy controls.
Some of that explanation is reassuring.
The overall picture is not.
A television has become complicated enough that the manufacturer needs an extensive corporate statement explaining exactly when it listens, when it recognizes content, how devices are discovered, what information is processed, and which agreements govern which forms of advertising.
The television industry created this complexity.
Then companies ask customers to be grateful that somewhere inside that complexity is an off switch.
No.
A company that respects its customers designs the product so customers do not need to become privacy experts to operate it safely.
Read LG’s September 2026 Smart TV privacy statement
LG Apparently Did Not Learn the “Leave the Customer’s Computer Alone” Lesson Either
If this attitude were limited to Smart TVs, LG could at least blame the uniquely terrible economics of connected television.
Then the monitor story happened.
Certain LG monitors caused LG Monitor App Installer to install through Windows Update when connected to a PC. Ars Technica reported that the application could then push promotional pop-ups, most notably advertisements for a 30-day McAfee trial.
Users did not receive an LG-specific prompt asking whether they wanted LG’s software installed.
According to Ars, Gamers Nexus reproduced the behavior repeatedly across multiple Windows 11 systems. The publication reported that the pop-up could appear on every boot.
This is breathtakingly obnoxious.
A monitor has one of the simplest jobs in consumer technology.
Display the computer.
Apparently LG looked at that relationship and thought:
What if plugging in the monitor also gave us an opportunity to install software and advertise McAfee?
That is not serving the customer.
That is using the customer’s hardware purchase as an excuse to push further into a device LG does not own.
Microsoft Had to Tell LG to Knock It Off
The story somehow gets worse.
After the controversy, Microsoft’s Windows and Devices executive vice president said Microsoft had contacted LG and that LG agreed to disable the McAfee pop-up from the app.
Microsoft.
A company that has itself spent years finding creative places to put recommendations, promotions, and nags inside Windows had to intervene because LG’s monitor software was pushing McAfee ads.
That is almost performance art.
Ars later summarized the broader concern bluntly: the McAfee advertising was removed, but the underlying issue of LG monitors installing ad-pushing software onto third-party computers remained concerning.
You bought the monitor.
LG apparently saw the purchase as permission to reach farther into the computer attached to it.
Same attitude.
Different screen.
Read Ars Technica’s report on Microsoft’s intervention over LG’s monitor software
This Is What Contempt Looks Like in Corporate Form
Corporate contempt rarely looks like an executive walking onstage and saying:
We hate our customers.
It looks like this instead.
You buy expensive hardware and still get advertisements.
You connect a monitor and software appears on your PC.
You buy a television and the manufacturer builds a behavioral-advertising business around what appears on it.
Privacy becomes a collection of settings you have to find and understand.
Regulators have to push the company toward clearer consent.
Your television scans the network and the manufacturer explains that everybody does it.
The home screen becomes advertising inventory.
Your viewing behavior becomes “glass-level” data.
Your living room becomes something advertisers are encouraged to “own.”
Every individual decision has a business explanation.
Together, they show a company that seems to have forgotten a very basic idea:
The customer’s interests are supposed to matter too.
LG’s Hardware Engineers Deserve Better Than This
The particularly maddening thing is that LG can make excellent hardware.
Its OLED displays can be superb.
That makes the rest of this behavior harder to excuse.
LG is not some desperate fly-by-night company trying to survive by squeezing six extra cents from every customer interaction.
It is one of the world’s largest consumer-electronics manufacturers.
It sells premium products at premium prices.
There is no reason a customer paying thousands of dollars should still feel like the raw material for an advertising strategy.
LG could build excellent televisions, collect the money, support the product, secure it, and then leave the owner alone.
That business model worked for decades.
Apparently it no longer generates enough “engagement.”
A Premium Product Should Feel Like It Belongs to the Person Who Bought It
This is what LG seems fundamentally unable to understand.
Ownership should create boundaries.
If I own the television, the home screen should primarily serve me.
If I own the monitor, plugging it in should not create a new marketing channel into my PC.
If I own the network, the television should access only what it actually needs.
If LG wants additional behavioral information for advertising, the burden should be on LG to ask clearly, briefly, and without manipulative design.
A premium consumer product should become less intrusive after I pay for it.
LG repeatedly finds ways to make it more commercially useful instead.
“At the Glass Level” Is a Perfect Phrase for a Company That Cannot Leave Its Customers Alone
LG Ad Solutions describes its ACR information as operating “at the glass level.”
That phrase should live in infamy because it captures the entire mentality.
The glass is not simply where the customer sees the picture anymore.
It is where LG gains leverage.
It is where content becomes behavior.
Behavior becomes data.
Data becomes an audience.
The audience becomes an advertising product.
The customer bought the screen.
LG found a way to keep making money from the glass.
At no point does the company seem capable of simply saying:
Thank you for buying our television. Enjoy it.
“Own the Living Room” Is Even Worse
Then there is LG Ad Solutions’ instruction to advertisers:
“Own the living room.”
I keep coming back to this phrase because it is so perfectly hostile to the customer’s perspective.
Advertising people will say it is obviously figurative.
Of course it is.
That does not make it less revealing.
LG’s customer is sitting in the living room.
LG’s advertising client is being told to own it.
Which side of that transaction sounds more important?
That is the question.
Privacy by Default Should Not Be a Negotiation
LG now says optional ACR, voice recognition, and interest-based advertising are off by default. Good.
Keep it that way.
Permanently.
Do not nag people into changing it.
Do not bundle permissions.
Do not hide commercial processing behind soft language.
Do not make turning things off harder than turning them on.
Do not add new advertising features through software updates and quietly assume the customer will hunt for another setting.
LG should treat privacy as part of product quality.
Not as something legal forced it to bolt onto the settings menu.
Customers Should Not Have to Fight the Manufacturer of Their Own Property
This is the recurring theme across all of LG’s controversies.
The customer keeps having to push back against the company that made the product.
Turn off the tracking.
Find the ad controls.
Block the promotions.
Separate the TV from the LAN.
Decline the agreements.
Remove the software.
Wait for Microsoft to intervene.
Wait for Texas to intervene.
Read a 2,000-word privacy statement.
Watch security researchers explain what the device is doing.
That relationship is backwards.
The manufacturer should be on the customer’s side.
LG increasingly behaves like another party the customer needs to defend themselves from.
LG Loathes Its Customers, or at Least It Behaves Like It Does
Behavior matters.
And LG’s behavior repeatedly says:
Your attention has value.
Your viewing behavior has value.
Your screen has advertising value.
Your living room has advertising value.
Your PC is another place our monitor software can reach.
Your network is another environment our Smart TV can scan.
Your consent is something our interfaces can obtain and our lawyers can document.
Your irritation matters when it becomes loud enough that Texas, Microsoft, journalists, or security researchers force us to respond.
That does not feel like respect.
It feels like contempt wrapped in product-management language.
LG wants customers to believe it values them.
Then it should start acting like the people buying its products are actually the customer, rather than the final resource left to monetize.
LG loathes its customers.
References
LG Electronics, “Understanding Privacy on LG Smart TVs,” September 12, 2026. LG’s current explanation of voice processing, ACR, device discovery, privacy controls, and optional advertising functionality.
Read LG’s full Smart TV privacy statement
LG Ad Solutions, “Trusted ACR Technology.” LG’s advertiser-facing description of glass-level ACR information and audience targeting based on viewing, purchases, advertising exposure, gaming, and location.
Read LG Ad Solutions’ ACR technology page
LG Ad Solutions, “Superior Solutions for Performance Advertisers.” LG’s description of home-screen advertising and its “Own the living room” cross-device strategy.
Read LG Ad Solutions’ advertiser solutions page
Texas Office of the Attorney General, May 11, 2026. Texas’s settlement with LG requires informed consent before ACR viewing-data collection, clearer disclosure, and a clear and simple opt-out.
Read the Texas-LG privacy settlement announcement
Ars Technica, “LG TV shown scanning LAN for third-party phones and other devices,” September 8, 2026. Reports on LG TV network-scanning behavior and LG’s explanation of the functionality.
Read Ars Technica’s LG network-scanning report
Ars Technica, “Microsoft responds to LG monitors installing McAfee ads on Windows,” July 23, 2026. Documents LG Monitor App Installer, McAfee promotional pop-ups, Windows Update installation behavior, and Microsoft’s intervention.
Read the Ars Technica LG monitor report
Ars Technica, “Ads and tracking infiltrated TVs. Now they’re coming for monitors,” August 24, 2026. Discusses the broader trend of advertising and tracking moving from Smart TVs into premium monitors, including LG’s monitor-software controversy.
Read Ars Technica’s broader monitor advertising analysis