I would love to see how these malicious notifications would occur if you are running Linux. I know it's not the point as it is about the principle but I assume this monitor would effectively become 'dumb' if running from an os where it's not capable of installing any drivers.
this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2026
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I have a vizio television. It is very sore sometimes that I won't connect it to the internet, but then I just reset it and it forgets it was sore.
I won't let it update its firmware because I expect it won't let me use it without an internet connection if I do.
I bought an LG monitor two years ago, and it quickly crapped out on me. Considering the bullshit LG is pulling with ads thanks to auto install of their drivers on Windows, their dogshit quality is now inside out.
I wish I hadn't bought a Dell monitor to replace it considering their heavy hand in the Gaza genocide, but I bought it before I learned that the company was led by murderers.
I bought a monitor at the beginning of the year and it's a perfectly dumb one. I admit that I have never looked at the windows drivers though. Maybe they do sneaky things.
that LG might use the app to collect data and share it with advertisers
Jokes on you, the bloatware that comes with Windows drivers does that since 20 years already. Especially Nvidia was always bad there.
"Ads and OSes could one day help drive down the price of monitors, as they did TVs." - Don't buy into this. Ads don't meaningfully affect the price of anything. It's just free money for the company and they can charge extra as a "no ads fee" to the people that don't want them. They're not getting hundreds of dollars per person.
No they wouldn't lie and pocket the extra money, as they always do...
But seriously, this is just to accustom the next generation to even worse conditions. And it's working with the whole enshittification thing.
It would be outrageous if dumb monitors were one day as rare as dumb TVs.
Oh sweet summer child...
Why the fuck do I want a smart monitor? I have a computer, and a video card.
You don't want one yet, but that might change when they're the only option
Bullshit. You can only go so far jamming shit into people's faces.
When the alternative becomes just not having a computer, you'll cave. Everyone will. All they'll have to do is just stop making monitors without the bullshit. It sounds insane now, but in 10 years either this ads and tracking in monitors will have been fully stamped out, or it'll be fully ubiquitous.
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Seemed to work fine for smart tvs
People complain about their smart TVs but you can also just buy a dumb TV. I did in late 2024, expecting tariffs.
TVs have always been standalone products that do more than just display an image. Monitors on the other hand serve only this purpose.
From what I've seen, so far is already amazingly far.
I swear they are gonna come out with smart socks any day now
Lightspeed briefs
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I always thought, if we returned to primitive life, it would be because of a nuclear war or something. Turns out enshitification, will drive people outside to throw Frisbees or something.
Time to start hoarding crts , but knowing then they'll throw ads into the adapters 4ol5
So the monitor connects via HDMI? And somehow installs something over the HDMI connection? Or is the user conned into installing the LG app under the guise of improved monitor functionality or some such bullshit?
Anything you plug into your computer is going to have some driver associated with it. Even a generic one. The monitor has a MAC address and other data that announces what it is. Your OS sees this and tries to use the appropriate driver's for the device. Windows will go so far as to try to fetch the drivers via Windows update to keep the device up to date. This is not a bad thing. It's bad when LG betrays your trust by using it as an attack vector to install spyware. That's what happened.
Given the recent article about how a website was using a zero volume audio signal to fingerprint browsers it's probably good to assume that "they" are trying to get you any way "they" can.
https://hackaday.com/2023/01/04/all-about-usb-c-resistors-and-emarkers/
There's a profit motive and a possible technological path. It's a safe assumption someone will eventually do it. That doesn't count bluetooth and wifi that only talks to other BrandX devices looking for a path out, and once 6G cell service becomes common it can be direct-to-device unless you're in a Faraday cage.
LG lost some trust after a recent report that some of its monitors installed McAfee pop-up ads onto connected computers. Since at least 2024, some of these displays installed an app, LG Monitor App Installer, onto connected computers under the cover of driver updates installed through Windows Update.
Connecting the monitor to the computer triggers a Windows driver update. LG grabs that update request and returns an app that automatically installs itself. The implied consent is willfully connecting the monitor to the computer.
Avoid LG products.
That's called malware this is crazy
*Avoid Microsoft products too!
In a sane world, LG would be declared a criminal enterprise and executives would go to prison for massively violating the CFAA.
I got a free LG monitor from an office closure near me. Didn't notice this because I'm a Linux person. Let someone use a Windows laptop with it via HDMI and it did that. Lol
It's an oligopoly. They do this because they think that prople can't go to a competitor because Samsung is doing the same thing. The people that's supposed to keep this from happening hasn't been doing their job.
Or is the user conned into installing the LG app under the guise of improved monitor functionality or some such bullshit?
According to the article, the add software is installed with the drivers through Microsoft Update.
So Linux users are safe, as always.
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Who's seriously out here connecting their monitor to the internet?
The monitor is telling Windows to install a driver which has ads in it.
Keyword is Windows thank goodness for alternatives
Agreed - though this is likely the first step towards ads being built-in to the monitor itself.
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The monitor is malware. It litterally backdoors software into systems over the hdmi connector. Windows is (stupidly) set up in a way that it just installs whatever "drivers" (ie adware) the monitor says it needs.
According to the article, the monitor installs software onto connected machines, and it runs ads from there
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It will be big corporations that will go after this. There is no way they will allow a monitor to monitor their business and push ads on company time. Since they buy the most monitors it will be an easy push back.
And before anyone says the regular consumer is the biggest buyer of monitors. I have had the same monitor on my home PC for 10 years. I have gotten 4 new monitors just for my desk in the same amount of time. Plus the site is lousy with monitors for every critical system and the NOC.
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