Remember ye old life-hack that you can use earbuds as a microphone in a pinch?
Speakers and microphones are conceptually the same technology. If your tv can play sound then in theory it can be used by a malicious hacker or company to records sound.
this post was submitted on 09 Sep 2026
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Privacy
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Only the cone-magnet-coil-wires part is the same. All the electrical parts are different. There's no way.
This should be a web site or YT channel. How to remove such bits without bricking the item.
To be fair, OP didn’t claim that the remote wasn’t bricked…
It works! I was fully prepared for it to not work and explain to my wife why we need to order a new one, but no issue at all lmao
Looking up which part to nuke took an hour, but anything to calm down my paranoid ass haha
"Oh good, he fell for the decoy"
oh no
I think ill just jeep using my LCD from 2007
Yeah, that's probably the smart move
No, it's not smart, that's the point! ;)
Nice one lmao
Is it really as much of a privacy problem as TV microphones? After all wouldn't the battery die?
Well this remote is connected to the TV via Bluetooth and the mic is super energy efficient so yeah, to hell with it
If I don’t want to take the remote apart I guess covering the mic opening with tape would be the next best thing? (Apart from never connecting it to WiFi, which I’ve never done anyway.)
How did you find out there was a microphone? And how did you figure out which chip?
The TV advetises voice recognition in both the TV itself and the remote.
If you look at it, it's likely going to be a 2x4mm silver rectangle with a small hole in it. Not always, but they mostly look like that.
There will almost always be a hole above it in the plastic remote housing.
MEMs microphones are a silver or black rectangle and it has to have a small hole in the top of the package https://www.st.com/en/mems-and-sensors/mems-microphones.html
Generally you can also just put a dab of hot glue over the top of the hole and it won't be able to hear shit, you don't necessarily have to desolder it, but it is the most effective.
Or just don't connect your TV?
To the WiFi?
You are often forced to in order to set it up at all, the damage is already done if you disconnect it or VLAN quarantine it after that.
It doesn't stop the TV from spying on you. GN just proved that it runs STT and records your conversations in plaintext and has the memory to store them for eternity. It also gets your location from scanning WiFi, Bluetooth, and any other devices in the band and geolocating based off of their data.
Then if you ever sell the TV, it will dump the data if they connect it, or somebody with the same brand smart TV moved in next door, it will use that TV's hidden SSID hotspot to jump the airgap and dump all if its (likely time and position stamped) transcribed spying data to the servers.
Hardware fix is literally the only fix.
Can you help me understand why i got downvotes for posting the following comment in this very same community 2 days ago?
I am not saying the following happens, i think there is no proof it happens, but its technically doable.
They are capable of scanning for local networks and bluetooth devices which can be used to identify a location. (This part they definitely do)
If your neighbour has an lg tv, or the presence of the tv is extracted through your phone. Then they know where it is and they also know of any open/public wifi networks around.
The researchers from gamers nexus can connect to 2 (ssid) networks at once for some reason.
In theory a neighbours lg tv could ~~broadcast their wifi credentials to your tv to~~ connect to upload the data.
Damn I was not aware of that.
And hope no open networks are in range, ever. Or it will exfiltrate collected data.
Or another TV of the same manufacturer that has Internet access.
Why not both?
Because one is unnecessary of you do the other?
Out of fucking principle, yes it's not connected, but I won't tolerate a mic in my remote. Besides, you have heard of them being able to use your neighbour's unsafe WIFI if you have to act so smart, right?
No, you're all getting it wrong.
Collect books, and use the microplastic that you have ingested over the years to build a water-tight caccoon in a cave to protect them.
Everything else simply requires rocks and/or genitalia. Or the absence of rocks and/or genitalia.
Such is a way.
That is not my remote though
I lost mine yesterday so I'm thinking this is where it went to.
Don't buy these kinds of TVs in the first place?
Sure thing, please look up what a 50 inch 4K dumb screen costs and report back to me.
I know you're being sarcastic but I don't know what you're getting out.
Do dumb screens exist ? If they're 4x the price, surely my browsing preferences can't be worth 3x the price ?
Just about 4x the price of a similar TV. Although, said monitor also has a higher refresh rate.
Oh wait! There's one under 2x the price : ~~"LG 50UL3J-M 50" UHD 4K Commercial Monitor"~~
Ok sorry that one is "smart" too.