MANY MINDEDLG says it will suspend smart TV apps that turn the set into a proxy
LG Electronics USA said on July 21 that it plans to suspend any smart TV app that turns the television into an always-on residential proxy node — a device that lets unknown third parties route their internet traffic through a home connection. LG senior vice president John Taylor's statement was direct: if this option is not removed, these apps will be suspended. The company also said it would strengthen its evaluation of developer-submitted apps.
The measurement behind the decision is the striking part. Research published July 2 by the security firm Spur found residential-proxy SDKs in more than 42% of the apps available in LG's webOS store, and in more than a quarter of Samsung Tizen apps. Spur's objection is not that proxying is hidden, since as it notes every peer opts in through a dedicated screen and receives value in return, but that the person clicking accept in a living room may be a household member with no standing to consent for the household, including a minor.
Two honest limits. LG has announced an intention and named no count of apps actually removed, so nothing has yet changed on anyone's television. And this is a fifteen-day-old story that our automated pull re-surfaced from an RSS feed; it was already carded on August 1 and is marked as a duplicate so the ledger counts it once, on the day it broke.
Source: Krebs on Security