[0:02]
This is a $1,200 LG 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 
[0:33]
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, 
[1:04]
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 
[1:35]
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, 
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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 
[2:38]
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 
[3:09]
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 
[3:40]
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 
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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 
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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 
[5:12]
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 x 720 5-in display with RGB backlow that 
[5:42]
casts a spotlight right onto the empty RAM slots in your motherboard. Ant focuses on usability with the cooler with flexible sleeved tubing and easily positionable screen and pre-installed paste with easy to use mounting hardware for installation. And also says it focused on tuning the pump noise level down with its Vortex view for silence. 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 
[6:13]
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 
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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, 
[7:16]
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 
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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 
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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 
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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 
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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, 
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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 
[10:26]
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. steps appears to work for that problem. But 
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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 
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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 
[12:00]
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 
[12:30]
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 
[13:03]
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, 
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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 
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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. 
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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 
[15:10]
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 
[15:41]
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 
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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 
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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, 
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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 
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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 
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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 
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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 
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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 
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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 
[20:20]
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 
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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 
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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 
[21:53]
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 
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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 
[22:55]
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 platform to either harvest data or distribute unsolicited information and advertisements through years after the fact. There's a big avenue for abuse 
[23:26]
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 
[23:57]
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 
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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 
[24:59]
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 
[25:30]
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 
[26:01]
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 
[26:32]
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 
[27:03]
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 
[27:33]
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 
[28:03]
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 
[28:34]
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 
[29:05]
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 
[29:36]
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. Subscribe for more. Go to store.camersac.net to help out directly or patreon.com/gamersaxis to support us there. and we'll see you all next time.