This is a $1,200 LG
34GX900A-B
Ultra Gear monitor that we bought. And
the $1,200 experience out of the box is
adwear and maybe spying on you. Windows
Update has been silently installing
McAfee Adwear onto user systems after
the user connects to certain LG Ultra
Gear monitors. After seeing a sudden
influx of user reports online and in our
team inbox, we bought our own monitor to
see if we could replicate the issues. We
replicated it simply by plugging it in
and turning it on. AdWare was our thanks
for spending $1,200
with LG. Once its app is installed, LG
technically possesses permission to use
quote all system resources end quote as
well as collect geoloccation, device
data, online activity, contacts, user
credentials, transactions, and more.
Better still, in the two days it took us
to put this content together, LG dropped
the price of its monitor in half,
seemingly because of the bad press
everywhere, and my displays at my desk
that I bought 3 years ago got the same
popup for the first time. 3 years after
buying the monitors. All thanks to a
Windows update all through its monitor
app installer. And that's despite
installing and running without ever once
asking the user or even prompting them
for consent at any stage in the
pipeline, which we questioned the
legality of. In the same week, LG also
rolled out pop-ups on certain LG smart
TVs, explaining how the new update added
quote AI based service terms end quote
to its user agreements. While LG's
pop-up doesn't explicitly mention it,
users who update their TVs are now
agreeing, quote, that it is your sole
responsibility to obtain all necessary
consents from any third parties whose
voices may be captured by the product
and to notify household members and
guests that their voices may be captured
and processed in compliance with
applicable wiretapping, eavesdropping,
and privacy laws." End quote. First of
all, when your cover your ass statement
has a blanket statement about making
sure you, the customer, are complying
with wiretapping and eavesdropping laws
by using a product. There's a there's a
big problem. Like, this should be an
immediate red flag for anybody. And
secondly, most people will never see
this and it's probably entirely
uninforceable anyway. There are a lot of
instances where it's not even possible
for someone to give legal consent to
being recorded by microphones in a smart
TV from LG. For example, a child not
capable of legally giving consent
because that's not how that works. Uh,
additionally, it could be an issue of
just I you're supposed to tell your
friends like, "Hey, thanks for coming
over. Before we get started, some
housekeeping rules. Uh, you see that TV
over there with the LG logo on it? Um,
just so you know, by coming into my
abode, you are agreeing that our
conversations may be recorded by that
thing to be harvested by LG. And then
also, it's going to pop up ads on top of
the ads from the YouTube videos that
we're watching with ads in them. So,
just so we're all clear, uh, if you
could please sign here and then you can
come in and we can eat some Cheetos. I
think that's how they imagine it. LG
also notes that users who choose not to
upgrade may lose access to security
updates. Forcing customers to decide
between privacy and security, except by
choosing privacy and not security.
You're still choosing not privacy
because now you're insecure, which is a
different form of privacy concerns
altogether. Uh digging into this
further, we discovered that this is
actually not unique for LG. This is a
regular occurrence for them. It's part
of an anti-consumer
course of action they've taken with
their TVs and their monitors. In fact,
the new pop-up disclosures on LG's TVs
actually appear to be a direct result of
LG's recent settlement agreement with
Texas residents.
>> Texas Attorney General Kim Paxton has
reached a settlement with electronics
company LG about concerns over smart TV
privacy. The agreement stops LG from
collecting viewing data through
automated content recognition technology
without users consent. Under the
settlement, LG must add a popup
disclosure on smart TVs, explaining how
viewing data may be collected and used.
>> In Paxton's petition against LG, he
alleged quote, "LG secretly monitors
what consumers watch across streaming
apps, cable, and even connected devices
like gaming consoles or Blu-ray players.
This isn't a glitch or side effect. It's
deliberate. LG harvests this data,
builds profiles of consumers behavior,
and sells it for profit. End quote. And
the list goes on. In 2024, LG
implemented advertisements into its
smart TV screen savers. In 2025, it
force installed an unreovable Microsoft
Copilot service on users smart TV home
screens, eventually caving to user
backlash by generously allowing you to
delete a shortcut icon. Within the last
decade, consumers across the US have
filed at least eight proposed class
actions against LG. Is this not enough
money for you? LG, you have to do all
the other stuff, too. But our viewers
asked us to dig into this. We
immediately ordered the $1,200 display
straight to GN. And let's take a look.
Before that, this video is brought to
you by the Anttech Vortex V360 liquid
cooler, which includes a rotatable 1280
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Learn more at the link in the
description below. We'll start with our
confirmation and validation of user
complaints, which we were able to do
several times on Windows 11 systems,
multiple of them, basically without any
effort at all, just plugging it in.
After connecting our new LG Ultra Gear
monitor to our PC, Windows Update
silently installed LG's extension and
software component driver updates.
Shortly thereafter, we noticed LG
Monitor app Installer in the recommended
section of our Windows start menu,
notated by a recently added tag. We then
used Windows Reliability Monitor to
verify that Windows automatically
installed the app only one single minute
after the initial driver updates
completed. It didn't ask us. There were
no pop-ups for it. It just did it. And
if we didn't notice it in the start
menu, because it's an onstartup app, an
app boot application that autoinstalls
silently in the background, a lot of
users might never notice it. We might
not have noticed it if not for, you
know, doing what we do. LG Monitor app
installers sole purpose is to install
other apps for your monitor while
egregiously advertising subscriptions
for McAfee scam detector.
Yes, I will take irony for $1,200,
please.
Blowware is not new for things like
pre-built PCs and laptops. And there are
kickback agreements between software
installers like Mac and Norton and the
pre-built or the laptop sellers. So,
that unfortunately is normal even though
it's awful. But this is, at least to us,
this is new. I don't think I've
personally ever seen a peripheral third
party device that isn't a full computer
with Windows installed on it come with
adwear to sell you McAfee and whatever
other they might pull through
their software service. So this should
not be allowed to spread cuz imagine
your keyboard doing this to you where
you plug in your mouse and it downloads
McAfee. The program's help section
helpfully explains, quote, "When you
connect the LG monitor, Windows updates
will automatically install the LG
Monitor app installer." End quote. Once
installed, we get hit with a massive
popup in the lower right corner of the
screen on every single boot. Great
experience. Typically, the pop-up
appears as shown here, advertising a
30-day free trial with McAfee. Although
very rarely, the pop-up recommends users
install LG's Switch, Calibration Studio,
Dual Controller, or Channels apps
instead. For reference of how often it
shows McAfee in comparison to the
others, which is the advertisement, we
captured 32 consecutive boots and found
the LG monitor app installer displayed
the McAfee pop-up 31 out of 32 times, or
roughly 97% of the time in that
particular sample that we turned on the
computer. And because it's connected to
the internet, they could theoretically
sub out that McAfee installer and add at
any point for something else instead.
Clicking on the Macy link reveals a
30-day free trial with text that is
pretty small and notes this quote. After
the trial, M Plus Premium is $39.99 for
the first year. End quote. We don't know
exactly what prompted the surge of
recent complaints from our viewers
emailing us about this because it seems
to have been going on for a little
while, but clearly something has changed
to cause this sudden increase in
complaints. Maybe they're putting it on
more devices now. Combing back through
various online reports, we found that LG
Monitor app installer criticisms
actually date back to at least 2024.
Here's a list of affected monitor model
numbers that we've compiled from user
complaints. This is not a complete list,
but this is everything that we saw when
doing some searching online. Our current
findings suggest that this issue is
specific to certain monitors in LG's
Ultra Gear product line. It may affect
others as well. Editing Steve here. Fun
fact, one day after recording that line,
again, as said in the intro, my monitor
got hit by this. And the one I'm looking
at right now that has the popup on it,
literally right now, is in the ultra
fine line. It's the 32UN 8880-B
32 in that I bought in 2023. This is
exactly what I want to be greeted with
when I turn my computer on at work.
Something that looks like malware that I
didn't expect from a device I've already
owned for 3 years that I thought had
established some sort of trust. But
anyway, as it relates to preventing apps
from autoinstalling based on hardware, a
Reddit user on Reddit explains that
users can open the edit group policy
from Windows taskbar, expand the
computer configuration, administrative
templates, and then system subfolders.
And then the user said that you can
select the device installation tab,
double click prevent automatic download
of applications associated with device
metadata, and then switch the settings
state to enabled before selecting apply.
Ultimately, this is not a trivial
process for the average computer user.
We did verify though that this set of
steps appears to work for that problem.
But
why would why would you think you'd have
to do that if you plug a monitor into
your computer? It's insane. We shouldn't
let it shift this way. Ultimately, one
of our primary concerns is that
according to its page in the Microsoft
Store, LG Monitor app installer is given
permission to use all system resources
and quote access your internet
connection. End quote. This all seems
unnecessary for something that is a
monitor. And if you don't know, this is
what companies who sell TVs are already
doing, but worse there, where they can
actually capture the pixels on the
screen, send it back for data
harvesting. And I don't believe for a
second that the companies collecting
that data can't tie it back to a user
through either an IP address or device
ID or something like that because they
might claim it's metadata,
but there's no assurance of that as an
end user. No actual reasonable
assurance. And this is all part of data
logging campaigns to extract and squeeze
more value out of people who are already
paying hundreds of dollars or thousands
of dollars for devices. Now, in this
instance of the monitor, we don't have
any evidence that they are capturing the
pixels on the screen. I'm not aware of
that happening yet on monitors. If
someone is, please let us know. Uh I
only know of it happening on TVs, but
you can see the window of what is
acceptable and normal shifting. And it
doesn't help that they're kind of shady,
very shady about how they let you know
about what they're capturing. But hey,
you agree that you inform everyone else
that you're in compliance with
wiretapping laws. The App Store page
also lists LG's privacy policy and its
additional terms. This seemingly allows
LG to collect geoloccation, device data,
online activity, contacts, user
credentials, transactions, and much more
through its monitor app installer. Now,
in our replication process of the user
complaints online, we were not at any
point given some form of consent or
agree form for this stuff. The app
installed without asking us, without our
consent. It ran without our consent, and
it appears to collect user data once
installed without consent, without even
potentially being aware of its
existence. And to us, this seems likely
illegal. I would be very curious if this
is also behaving in the same manner for
our viewers in Europe. That would be
pretty interesting given the GDPR laws.
And I I wonder if first of all, if
they're selling any of these and you buy
you get a US model in Europe, probably
still illegal for them to do that. I'm
not an expert on GDPR law, but it sure
seems that way. Uh but either way, if
they even if they have an EU model, we'd
love to hear from you if you can
replicate this there on something you
bought in Europe because probably
there's an avenue there for a, you know,
a potentially successful lawsuit. But
anyway, we're not experts on that stuff,
so let's just keep going with the
technicals. OEMs using Windows to
install software on user systems
automatically isn't new. We see the same
practices from Alienware, Razer, Asus,
MSI, Dell, and HP, and so on. The main
difference is those are typically for
computers bought pre-built, not for
parts of a computer that you buy
separately and then plug into a
computer. So letting LG get away with
this is setting a dangerous precedent.
Malware Bites defines ADWware as quote a
type of malicious software that secretly
installs itself on your device and
displays unwanted advertisements and
pop-ups. In some cases, Adwear can even
track your online behavior and display
personalized ads. Typically, it uses an
underhanded method to either disguise
itself as legitimate or piggyback on
another program to trick you into
installing it on your PC, tablet, or
mobile device. End quote. Ironically,
McAfee describes the difference between
harmless and harmful adwear, stating,
quote, legitimate adwear asks for your
consent to send ads and software promos.
End quote. In contrast, LG's adwear for
McAfee actually uh did not what was it
again? ask for our consent to send ads
and software promos. That was a quote a
single time before installing or upon
opening the first time. So McAfee
appears to be self-identifying as
illegitimate adwear. Regarding McAfee
and LG's ties to one another, McAfee and
LG have been partnered since at least
2011. And in 2021, McAfee quote
announced a new partnership with LG to
pre-install a 30-day free trial of
McAfee Security on LG PCs in Korea and
worldwide unquote. a precursor to the
two's latest developments. We ultimately
think that LG misused or abused some of
the vendor tools that Microsoft makes
available to them and provides. But we
also think Microsoft bears
responsibility here. One, because they
enabled it. Two, because they probably
are in bed with all these companies
anyway. Uh but for its role in
installing adwear on users devices
through third party applications like
LG's, Microsoft is also responsible. And
we don't just mean because of the adwear
and spyware that is Windows 11, which
there's a lot of other concerns about
with three-letter agencies. But
Microsoft Defender security research
team stated in a 2013 blog post, quote,
"Microsoft security products consider
Adwear something that the user should be
informed about and given the choice of
whether to remove end quote." Despite
Microsoft's previous disposition that
users quote should be informed end quote
of Adwear, it doesn't appear to enforce
any consequences when software vendors
fail to notify users of said Adwear.
Interestingly, Microsoft's current
digital safety policies, note, quote,
"downloading software without the
consent of an end user or using
fraudulent or misleading means to
deceive users into clicking links,
visiting websites, or downloading
software," end quote, is in its examples
of prohibited activities. So, Microsoft,
we would contend, engaged in what it
itself calls prohibited activities by
facilitating the software to download
without the consent of the end user. LG
also recently deployed its new webOS
update pop-ups on certain LG TVs. The
update adds features like the ability to
view win probabilities on live sports,
but not betting, and quote, create music
with AI end quote. You can even
configure what LG calls kids mode. No
word on if that removes the win
probabilities. Now, we couldn't help but
feel like adding uh view win
probabilities on live sports might
somehow be connected to big gambling,
but it's not like there's some
partnership or direct link between LG
and MGM Resorts, one of the largest
casino brands in the world. I that would
be crazy. they had like a long-standing
partnership together or something.
Oh, okay. The updates pop-up disclosures
also mention adding AI based service
terms to its terms of use. While not
disclosed in the pop-up, the LG AIU
service terms state, quote, "You
acknowledge and agree that it is your
sole responsibility to obtain all
necessary consents from any third
parties whose voices may be captured by
the product and to notify household
members and guests that their voices may
be captured and processed in
compliance." Again, as we said in the
beginning, with applicable wiretapping,
eavesdropping, and privacy laws due to
the tactical nature of generative AI,
output could potentially lead to
physical injury, property damage, or
other harm to life, body, or property.
The AI based services may rely on a
variety of data sources to operate and
improve, which may include LG content,
data from your use of products or
services, content licensed from third
parties, and content that is publicly
available." End quote. even as a blanket
cover your ass statement. These terms
are absurd. And we have a hard time
believing anybody would buy LG devices
if this were written on right on the
front of the display when you saw it in
person in a store. It seems like no one
would want to buy it if they were more
forthcoming and disclosing these terms.
Uh instead, LG hides the lines in the
middle of an 8,000word document, which
is substantially longer than this
script. actually think takes like two
times as long as this. It's going to
take 30 minutes for me to read through
this script. It would take even longer
to read those 8,000 words with that
hidden in the middle of it. LG's webOS
pop-up, though also informs users,
quote, "If you choose not to upgrade,
access to new terms and security related
updates may be limited." End quote.
Again, leaving users to decide between
privacy and security. LG's history of
adwear and improperly collecting user
data goes way back, though. In 2013, Dr.
Beat, an IT consultant, used WireGuard
to analyze his network traffic and
discovered that his TV was sending his
channel name, device ID, broadcast type,
device platform, and other unencrypted
watching data to lgapptv.com
every time he changed the channel. Dr. B
then claims that after disabling
collection of watching info and his TV
settings, the TV continued transmitting
data, but quote, "This time a flag in
the data had been changed from one to
zero to indicate the user had opted
out." End quote. as reported by the BBC.
So, it was still harvesting and
collecting it as far as we can tell. And
some CSV somewhere had one value flipped
to a zero to tell them, hey, we have
this data, but the user doesn't want us
to use it. That
That's an interesting use of opting out.
He also discovered that his TV had been
sending file names stored on an external
USB drive. Dr. Beat confirmed this by
creating a spoof AVI file named uh
something that get us demonetized to
read and eventually finding it in the
traffic logs that were outgoing. You
could also see how this would lead to
domestic spying and surveillance, for
example, by governments or information
being reported back to agencies. If this
sounds insane, increasingly we've seen
that it's not. for example, with
Microsoft's GDID, where it has now been
shown to partner with, for example, the
FBI to tie specific device IDs to
people. After reporting his findings to
LG, it supposedly escalated the issues
to LG's UK office before responding,
quote, "The advice we have been given is
that unfortunately, as you accepted the
terms and conditions on your TV, your
concerns would be best directed to the
retailer. We understand you feel you
should have been made aware of these T's
and C's at the point of sale and for
obvious reasons LG is unable to pass
comment on their actions. End quote.
After media outlets picked up Dr. Beat's
blog post, LG validated his findings but
claimed it wasn't storing the
transmitted data. LG released a
statement. Quote, "We have verified that
even when this function is turned off by
the viewers, it continues to transmit
viewing information, although the data
is not retained by the server. A
firmware update is being prepared for
immediate roll out that will correct
this problem on all affected LG smart
TVs. So, when this feature is disabled,
no data will be transmitted. LG regrets
any concerns these reports may have
caused and will continue to strive to
meet the expectations of all our
customers and the public. We hope this
update clears up any confusion." End
quote. Ah, yes. It's a classic. No, no,
you're all confused. this data that we
just admitted we were accidentally
sending back. Anyway, that's you're
you're very confused. It's the Do we
have Do we have any more gas for the
light? I've got a We just were running
out of gas in this light. We also found
a thread about the LG monitor app
installer situation with one Reddit user
claiming that his Pi Hole DNS server
repeatedly blocked three different LG TV
and ad URLs in the last week.
Ironically, Dr. Beat claims he was
prompted to investigate after his quote
new LG smart TV was displaying ads on
the smart landing screen. End quote
highlighting one of LG's recurring
themes. In 2024, RS Technica reported
that LG had implemented ads into its
screen savers, reporting, quote, "As you
might have expected, LG didn't make a
big splashy announcement to consumers or
LG TV owners about this new ad format.
Instead, and ostensibly strategically,
the September 5th announcement was made
to advertisers." End quote. On Reddit,
one user claimed he randomly started
receiving advertisements three years
after purchasing the TV. So, it's like a
time bomb of ventification. At some
point, the thing you bought years down
the line might go from something that
you've been apparently happy enough to
keep around for 3 years to something
that changes in its base functionality.
And if you're a company too, that seems
like an awfully powerful asset to flip a
switch at some point and suddenly every
device you've distributed becomes a
platform to either harvest data or
distribute
unsolicited information and
advertisements through years after the
fact. There's a big avenue for abuse
there other than you know the actual
abuse that exists inherent to that
process. Another commented, quote,
"They're not only audiovisisual, they're
loud, too. With my TV on volume 10, it
sounded like it was around volume 45.
Woke me up at 3:00 a.m., too. When the
TV in the living room just woke itself
up to blast an ad out of nowhere the
other day." End quote. In late 2025, LG
force installed an ir removable
Microsoft Copilot service on users TVs,
only giving customers the ability to
delete it after heavy backlash. Around
this time, Texas Attorney General Ken
Paxton filed a petition against LG,
claiming, quote, "Through automatic
content recognition technology, ACR, LG
secretly monitors what consumers watch
across streaming apps, cable, and even
connected devices like gaming consoles
or Blu-ray players. This isn't a glitch
or side effect. It's deliberate. LG
harvests this data, builds profiles of
consumers behavior, and sells it for
profit." End quote. The AG's press
release explains how ACR works, stating,
quote, "This software can capture
screenshots of a user's television
display every 500 milliseconds, monitor
viewing activity in real time, and
transmit that information back to the
company without the users knowledge or
consent. The companies then sell that
consumer information to target ads
across platforms for a profit." End
quote. Given that LG itself has to state
that it's not violating wiretapping and
easedropping laws, which is definitely
something somebody who isn't wiretapping
or easedropping would say, uh, we can't
recommend buying any LG products right
now. It's unfortunate, but the fact that
something like a TV someone bought can
three years later start behaving in a
different way from what they were sold
like by acting as a vector for
advertisements for a thing that you
bought and paid for physically and
exists in your house physically and has
been used without those things for
years. We just we can't recommend it
because, you know, unfortunately this
display I we're not monitor reviewers. I
don't know the the specifics of its
performance versus others, but this is
probably the highest end display I've
ever bought. We're not big display
people here. $1,200 is a lot of
money for a monitor. Like before the RAM
crisis, that's what I might pay for a
computer, you know? And like this, it
seems nice. I don't know exactly, but
just hardware wise, it seems like a nice
display. I would never buy this thing if
I weren't investigating the adwear with
the team because it's this is insane.
And the agreements, you know, as we
crawled through the privacy terms and
when Tannon on the team told me he found
the line about how they make you agree
that anyone entering your house near
your smart TVs uh is going to be
informed that it might capture their
voice. That's when it went from like,
okay, annoying McAfee thing to we cannot
recommend any LG products because it's
crazy. Uh, the amount of adwear, the
fact that some users have complained of
getting experience changing spyware
pop-ups 3 years after purchase, concerns
about wiretapping LG TVs in the same
room, although they would call it not
wiretapping. I mean, the fact that they
have to make you agree that you're the
one doing it if you don't inform people
is a concern. and the Windows update
auto installs without consent just mean
we would recommend avoiding LG displays
altogether. Additionally, if you
currently own any LG smart TVs or
monitors, we'd recommend disconnecting
those devices from the internet if
possible. It's really discouraging that
this is the new norm for so-called smart
TVs that you buy and pay for. And we
feel like the situation is made worse by
the fact that there's not any obvious
alternatives a lot of the time. In his
filing, Texas's AG Paxton accused not
just LG, but all five of the largest TV
manufacturers, Sony, Samsung, LG,
Highense, and TCL, of data harvesting
without consent, leaving consumers
feeling like they have no other option
but to accept the TV manufacturers
anti-consumer practices. Now, a lot of
these complaints we're talking about
today, it's two things. It's the adwear
that installs with this the monitor so
the McAfee stuff and then it's the
collecting and harvesting of information
what I would call spyware that happens
through for example it's TVs and so then
we come back to combining those things
where the next concern we currently
don't have uh evidence of this yet but I
would be shocked if this isn't the case
would be if LG's monitor app is also
collecting this type of information.
know that they make you agree that they
might harvest geoloccation data,
credentials, contacts, transactions,
things like this in various terms and
agreements on their website. Um, but the
monitor app would be the next major
concern. We think it's certainly
possible, especially considering LG's
history of improper data collection, and
we're already talking with a security
researcher about looking into that. Uh,
and we'll follow up with the PS, you
know, if we find something there. So,
uh, that being said, this is definitely
something we're interested in looking
into further for follow-ups. Uh, if you
happen to have any tips or leads for
broader LG investigations or looking
into TVs and monitors in general that do
this type of thing, email us at tips
tips psrs nexus.net. Um, and I don't
know, put LG in the title or the subject
or something so we can find it easily.
That's it for this one, though. Thanks
for watching. I don't know what I'm
going to do with this. Like, we could
just send it back. Maybe I should. Um,
It's I don't like buying things to do
content on and then sending them back.
It's like not really it's not how we
want to operate. You know, we bought it,
we got our use out of it, even though
it's not a normal use, but as a consumer
because I now own this thing. Normally,
we put it into service after that or we
keep it around for testing later. This I
I don't know if I want it in service. I
I really don't think I do cuz at some
point we're going to connect it to a
computer that we don't want that
software on which is all of them and
it's going to go on the computer and
it's going to become a concern for us.
So I I don't know I like I this is not
usable for me as a consumer. So I don't
know man I ethically I don't like
sending it back because it's like we got
our use but it's also not the intended
use of the product. Like I mean we're
basically doing what a consumer does.
Buy it. What the Ads and then send
it back, you know. So I don't know.
Maybe I will for this one. I don't
really It's just going to sit on a
shelf. But
that's it. Thanks for watching.
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