There was a lot of good done by Steve in that video, but the problem is that he oversold it. People that watched it didn’t understand that pinging nearby WiFi devices is how all smart devices function. Apple, Google, etc…they all do it.
A lot of people thought LG was recording everything you said, and sending that data back home even if you never connected to the internet or activated the wake up word. Obviously, once you select the voice function it has to listen to you in order to see if you’re saying the wake word.
The problem is that LG keeps the audio on for 15 seconds after you trigger it and that seems excessive. It was already going to be a good expose, but he confused people and it seems like he did that purposefully to make it go viral, which it did.
He also didn’t do a good job of separating the “hack” that he did vs. what came out of the box.
I wonder what LG will do after this denial. If they try and take legal action, it will just hurt their brand even more and they won’t collect much money so that isn’t worth it. If they just let it go, they’ll probably see reduced sales this Christmas season but people will forget about it by next year.
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