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This is because as soon as a monitor is connected to a Windows computer, it automatically installs both the LG Monitor App Installer and McAfee Scam Detector without ever asking the user for permission.
Is this not a felony under U.S. law? Computer hacking has HUGE criminal liability.
Name something you do as a corporation to avoid any laws or accountability with the current administration
BRIBE THE DOJ
let's see if that answer's on the board..survey says...!
DING
It's actually windows doing it
Another win for Linux
The more I learn about windows the more I wish I would've ditched it a long time ago instead of last month...
This is 100% also Microsoft fault and they are to be held accountable for this. With many drivers it can happen that one manufacturer goes rogue, but Microsoft needs to have a zero tolerance policy for this: do it once and your signature is permanently revoked for all your drivers
LG is on my permanent vendor shitlist for related reasons.
Bought a LG TV and a Monitor three years ago. Last time I will do that. Really happy about my decision not to let the TV have access to the internet.
Good luck finding a brand NOT doing it by the time you're ready for a new one.
Not only that but my old LG smart TV (47LM8600, I think manufactured in 2012) has literal suicide timers in its built in apps. Mine has never been connected to any network and yet it mysteriously informed me after approximately three years of ownership that all of its player apps such as Youtube, Hulu, Netflix, etc. would stop working because they were "no longer supported," all of them within the time frame of the same couple of weeks. It knew this somehow, apparently via magic, or quantum fluctuations, or psychic brain waves. Without internet connectivity.
Obviously I don't use any of those features so I didn't give a rat's ass and I still don't. But I still find that deeply suspicious.
The only technical explanation that’s not malice would be that some certificate store on the device had expiring certificates and would need an update to continue to function (or rather connect to remote servers).
Planned obsolescence is one of those things that just infuriates me so much about capitalism.
I've used an LG monitor for about 5 years, and never install the manufacturer's software unless it looks genuinely useful. When I saw the Gamers Nexus video I went to check my installed apps, and sure enough there was LG's monitor app, installed silently without my knowledge. I used Bulk Crap Uninstaller to get rid of it.
To prevent this kind of thing in future, run gpedit.msc and enable “Prevent automatic download of applications associated with device metadata” under Computer Configuration → Administrative Templates → System → Device Installation.
Or you could just change to an os that doesnt piss on its users constantly
I wish we would stop using smart to describe surveillance technology. Smart sounds nicez but there's nothing smart about it...
That is the neat thing about language, it adapts. Euphemisms wear off and something like "smart device" increasingly sounds like "nasty anti-consumer surveillance home appliance" all by itself.
As much as I'd like a bigger TV with OLED, I'll be sticking with my old Toshiba dumb TV. It's good enough and doesn't even know the internet exists.
I have an LG TV that has never been exposed to the internet and it's amazing.
Same! I jailbroke mine and can watch YouTube and Twitch ad-free, and it's got Jellyfin on the homebrew channel, so I can access my server off my TV :)
Omg you can jailbreak smart TVs now? HELL yeah
EDIT: I am especially interested in LG webOS because I was a Palm Prē enjoyer back in the day and I rooted the fuck out of that phone (still have it somewhere)
Check out rootmy.tv to jailbreak your LG smart TV. Depending on the model and firmware, there could be additional steps you need to take, but in my case, since I still had the stock firmware installed, it was just a single slide of a button on the TV's web browser.
My wife and I bought a TV on the internet. What brand? I have no idea but it's the type they have in waiting rooms and restaurants. Zero internet. Zero apps. You push the button and it turns on. It's the best fucking purchase we've made in the last five years.
For the PC Monitor issue: To prevent this sort of behavior. Open Group Policy Editor Computer Configuration>Administrative Templates>System>Device Installation Prevent automatic downloads of applications associated with device metadata = Set to Enable.
To get rid of it once installed you have to remove it from the Windows Store since it's an app, not an installed program. For me, this was not possible as there was no way presented to uninstall it in the app store. I had to do it from terminal with this command, which could vary a bit depending on the exact app version:
Remove-AppxPackage LGElectronics.LGMonitorApp_1.2606.1601.0_x86__cfnzzhwkr8z5w
Does anyone make dumb TVs anymore? Seems like there's a sizable market for it. I haven't had a TV in 6 years and want one for local channels, but I really don't want a smart TV.
I just never gave my smart TV network info. It’s at the factory settings and can’t connect to anything. If there isn’t a console connected to it then it is useless. Just like the good ole days.
LG clearly stands for "Literal Garbage". The DisplayPort and HDMI ports on the gaming monitor I bought a few years ago failed approximately 6 months in.
And you think the other manufacturers are different?
Only solution is NO NETWORK. Use as a simple TV. I have 2 fairly new LGs and none are network connected. They work perfectly that way. I learnt the lesson with my 15y old Samsung SmartTV, one of the first to the market, and it wanted to use a Samsung account for almost everything, even to use the Youtube client. Nope.
These are computer monitors, not TVs. Plugging them into a Windows box triggers Windows to silently install their "driver," which silently installs a handful of other startup apps. It's an escalation of the smartTV-wifi path.
All of this is true but I really hate the headline. Headlines for this SHOULD SAY "Microsoft's Windows update feature is distributing adware."
How can a monitor install stuff on a PC? Can you do that over hdmi/dp? Does it require usb?
Either way, this stuff should be illegal or at least require a much more explicit warning than hiding it in terms of service that nobody reads. And of course everybody would do well to avoid LG out of principle from now on.
Saw the video by Gamers Nexus and basically Windows auto installs an LG Driver utility that has ads.
Razer mice have some crapware that auto-installs on Windows now, through windows update. Their official driver that it downloads adds the crap and Microsoft just lets it do it all.
No such hassles on Linux though.
Windows update, by default, is set to automatically download and install the malware for them when the HDMI cable is connected to the computer, within less than a minute.
It's pretty much impossible to buy a dumb TV nowadays. It's much easier to disconnect a smart TV from the internet using a firewall.
