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NooneAtAll3 6 hours ago

> ACR uses audio fingerprinting technology

so they aren't even denying listening in on everything?

mitxela 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

They're not denying anything about programs other than ACR. That's telling. They didn't say "your TV doesn't listen" or "your TV doesn't collect"

xethos 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

"Everything" would include the microphone, both in the remote and the TV. They're claiming to split off the audio, with one path going to the speakers (and there to your ears), and the other path being hashed (and from there to LG).

They still claim to get your media's audio, but deny using the microphones.

juiceland 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

If they don’t use the microphones why do they have a statement in their Terms of Service to not say sensitive things in front of your TV? It says the TV owner is "solely responsible" for obtaining all necessary consents from third parties whose voices may be recorded by the device, and must warn household members and guests that their voices may be recorded, and if someone does not agree, the TV's microphone and voice functions need to be turned off. [0]

[0] https://www.lg.com/us/terms

gruez 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

>If they don’t use the microphones why do they have a statement in their Terms of Service to not say sensitive things in front of your TV?

Other people have mentioned there's other voice features like diction/voice control, so it's plausibly for that.

mitxela 3 hours ago | parent [-]

That's probably the program that uploads everything you say then. Nobody thought the ACR was doing that.

BalinKing 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> If they don’t use the microphones why do they have a statement in their Terms of Service to not say sensitive things in front of your TV?

1. The introduction says that Smart TVs are not included in this ToS ("not including Smart TVs").

2. Where do the terms say anything about "sensitive" content? The closest thing I see is section 4.d, but that's just about wiretapping/privacy laws in general.

fsuts 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Which paragraph?

mitxela 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

They deny ACR uses the microphones. Big difference. Nobody thought ACR used the microphones.

llm_nerd 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

They explicitly state that the audio ACR is done through the "TV’s internal audio processor". e.g. rendered audio, not recorded audio. I mean, you could stretch the claim to have it internal include recorded audio, but that seems dubious.

sgc 5 hours ago | parent [-]

Why are you giving a shady company with shady terms and shady history the benefit of the doubt?

llm_nerd 5 hours ago | parent [-]

Because when people cry wolf, and then there is no wolf, it actually harms the consumer by lowering everyone's guard. Have people not learned this yet?

Gamers Nexus discovered recently, through their "AMD blacklisting" bit (when some relatively minor mid-lifecycle refresh of a product they didn't get a demo unit, so it turned into some "we are the truthsayers!" bit), that doing the Louis Rossmann routine earns them loads of links and clicks. So they're firmly in the cry wolf territory now, and it makes me more dubious of their claims that the people they are questioning.

This whole space is filled with bullshit now. Saw another video where a big channel talks about why TVs are so cheap now, and they then explain it that it's because they sell your data. In the real world, the selling data bit, ACR, and so on, is absolutely tiny dollars business. TVs are cheap because massive factories are pumping out these almost entirely plastic products in enormous numbers, and they're extremely cheap to make, and the IP has all been long amortized out.

tredre3 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I agree with you that accusations need to be backed by proofs and the kneejerk reactions on HN are embarrassing to read and unhelpful. Big bad evil corp, every single time. I mean those reactions are all over social media, but I just expected a little bit less knee jerk from HN.

> In the real world, the selling data bit, ACR, and so on, is absolutely tiny dollars business. TVs are cheap because massive factories are pumping out these almost entirely plastic products in enormous numbers, and they're extremely cheap to make, and the IP has all been long amortized out.

Unfortunately that part if your comment is provably false in at least one instance: Vizio. It's a shame, I thought we were on the same page about spreading half truths.

Vizio's numbers are famously public due to its recent sale. We know they lost money on most televisions sold (not all!), and they made it up in ad revenue and content distribution from those TVs. It doesn't prove that LG loses money on its TVs, but it's clearly not as clear cut as you make it out to be.

llm_nerd an hour ago | parent [-]

> Vizio's numbers are famously public due to its recent sale.

Vizio's numbers were public because they went public in 2021 and like every public corporation they have to report numbers. The sale to Walmart actually made their numbers private again because while they're a part of public company still, it's now thoroughly washed in such a mass of numbers it disappears in any quantifiable way.

> It doesn't prove that LG loses money on its TVs, but it's clearly not as clear cut as you make it out to be

How clear cut do you think I made it? You seem to be claiming my comment said something it didn't.

TVs are being subsidized by secondary businesses for some vendors, to some degree, but that isn't why TVs are cheap. If you completely removed that factor, some makers would be slightly more expensive...but not by that much at all.

Like people do a lot of clever positioning to grossly overstate how much they make from this. And it's worth noting that much if not most of the revenue people ascribe to "ads" or privacy invasion on Vizio, actually came from their Connected+ platform. Vizio had a platform, just like Apple does, and just like Apple they took a cut of every subscription signed up for, or piece of media purchased.

I remember back in the day when laptops had a bunch of pre-installed junk and stupid stickers all over them -- at least in the Windows world -- and people would claim this "subsidized" the laptop. That it made it much less expensive. Some people ran the numbers and it was utterly marginal, but they did it because the average person simply didn't care. If they just increased the price the tiny amount and removed that shit the product would be better, but if most people don't care and you can eek out a tiny bit more, they do it.

notpushkin 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Still doesn’t mean they’re not selling the data?