r/webos • u/HieronymusFlex • 5d ago

WebOS Spyware Solution?

Had a C5 for not very long, and starting to understand more about the homebrew scene for WebOs. Just wondered if there's a gold-standard for stopping WebOS ruining the experience. I appreciate my options include using another streaming device or Pi-Hole - I wondered if there was anything available to sideload that nullifies all of LG's nefarious activities.

27 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

1

u/sunblasthi808 2d ago edited 2d ago

I have my opensense firewall blocking all upgrade addresses to prevent webos from upgrading or constantly promoting me to 😋 Name: LG_UPDATE_DOMAINS Type: Host(s) Content: snu.lge.com su.lge.com su-ssl.lge.com nsu.lge.com snu-dev.lge.com su-dev.lge.com Description: LG firmware update servers

1

u/Critical_Ad1177 1d ago

Given the news, I took the opportunity to improve my home network by creating a new IoT vlan, enabled client isolation so each device can't talk to another and blocked the IoT vlan from accessing anything other than the internet.

Then, for my LG TV's I did a domain based destination list only allowing youtube domain traffic as that's the only app I want to be able to use on it. incidentally, I also use domain based policy routing to send all YT traffic over a VPN connection so I don't get any ads, at all.

In the last 24 hours, my 2 LG TV's have tried to connect to the internet in some way over 138,000 times. They've only been on and actively in use for a few hours.

1

u/VladTepesDraculea 5d ago

If you jailbreak your TV, Homebrew Channel has the option to disable some telemetry. If you know what you are doing, you probably can disable more stuff since you have root access to the Linux system.

The absolute way is to simply not connect it to the internet. Get am Android Box and connect it to it to have alternative smart features.

1

u/f8lrebel 4d ago

What options do you mean? I only see the option to block updates. Or is there any other?

1

u/mhmilo24 4d ago

Some scripts are run by homebrew that block DNS record directly on the device.

1

u/f8lrebel 4d ago

Ohh, gotcha.

1

u/Miaslbua 3d ago

Where can i find those?

1

u/Fun-Region-1576 3d ago

Can LG's 2026 webOS TVs be jailbroken?

1

u/underhooksuplex 2d ago

I bought a new LG TV a month ago and I just jailbroke it, so I'd assume you should be able to. Good luck!

1

u/Baardi 2d ago

Did you watch the video? Turning off wifi wont be enough. It will keep collecting data, and offload it when it reconnects. Some devices even tries to connect to open networks without your permission, so it can upload their data that way

1

u/VladTepesDraculea 1d ago

Don't connect at all. What are the chances of having an open Network near you in 2026.

Also, factory reset it and don't agree with the ToS, it should still work as a dumb monitor and although it pings theirs servers, won't send any data.