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submitted 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago) by rimu@piefed.social to c/technology@piefed.social

LG recently forced upon us an app install loaded with McAfee adware through a Windows update. We found that this has been happening to tons of users, made worse by LG's shady history with TVs that instruct buyers to inform house visitors of third-party microphones in their living room. At no point in the adware or application install did LG or Microsoft ask us for consent or permission to install the software and enable its various permissions. On monitors ranging 1 day old in our office to 3 years old, we've been able to replicate these issues -- including on the LG 34GX900A-B that we just bought (and have now returned, following spyware concerns).

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[-] Malyca@lemmy.zip 2 points 28 minutes ago

So glad I bought 4 of these TVs guys.

[-] Th4tGuyII@fedia.io 29 points 17 hours ago

Man, I miss the days when all TVs were dumb. All they needed was a coax for aerial TV, and then whatever input for anything else. If I wanted my TV to be smart, I could do that myself by pluging a smart device into it.

[-] cobysev@lemmy.world 5 points 17 hours ago

I plugged a mini PC into my TV, then control it from the couch with a wireless mouse and keyboard. Now I can stream all my favorite Internet shows from a desktop browser. No smart TV required!

[-] 4am@lemmy.zip 4 points 17 hours ago

Yeah except you can’t buy a not-smart TV anymore

[-] cobysev@lemmy.world 9 points 17 hours ago

True, but I just refuse to connect my Smart TV to the Internet. It can't talk to my PC, it just operates as a dumb display for the mini PC.

[-] Nikki 9 points 17 hours ago

roumer is that some brands try and connect to any open WiFi networks or other smart TVs to get on the internet, its disgusting and should be illegal

[-] Slayer@infosec.pub 3 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago)

You can buy not-smart TV like Sceptre.

[-] ivan@piefed.social 2 points 14 hours ago

I just looked in my local online electronics shop, and there are lots of decent non-smart TV’s of various brands - Philips, Kivi, Thompson etc.

Using “dumb” Toshiba TV with RPi as TV box myself - it supports HDMI-CEC too, so only TV remote is enough.

[-] BrickEater@lemmy.world 1 points 13 hours ago

Yes you can, they're called Monitors

[-] DrBob@lemmy.ca 2 points 16 hours ago

Look for a commercial display. Same thing without the smart elements. They are more expensive though.

[-] baronvonj@piefed.social 1 points 12 hours ago

Samsung has digital signage models that have a convenient "skip" button on the WiFi setup.

[-] Sonicdemon86@lemmy.world 5 points 17 hours ago

Is this an windows only issue? They only tested it on one OS. My LGs on my Bazzite system haven't done this. Anyone else on not windows amd have LG seen any random installs?

[-] Jesus_666@lemmy.world 18 points 16 hours ago

It's installed through Windows's automatic driver installation system; LG just provides this stuff as a driver package. The monitors themselves can't install anything.

[-] ivan@piefed.social 3 points 14 hours ago

My ASUS laptop has this driver utility that gets installed along with Windows automatically that shows McAfee antivirus ads.

Almost got a heart attack first time, thought I got virus on clean install already. Turns out it’s just ASUS showing me ads on laptop I bought from them.

this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2026
171 points (100.0% liked)

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