One of the tech industry's worst-kept secrets is that smart TVs spy on us. There are countless articles and videos online discussing it, as well as plenty of guides on how to fix it while maintaining the smart functionality of your TV.

Well, unfortunately, some new independent research strongly suggests the problem is much worse than we thought, and that the methods we use to stop it while retaining smart TV functionality may not actually work.

We've known for a while that smart TVs have ways of spying on us, but recent online discussion has shed light on the true extent of how much and how far it actually goes.

A feature built into many smart TVs called ACR (Automatic Content Recognition) lets your smart TV or streaming stick sample the contents of your screen, collect the data, and report back to the manufacturer. As if that weren't already creepy enough, the worst part is that it can run in the background even if you're not watching content through the smart TV's built-in apps, such as from your console, PC, or Blu-ray player.

We were aware of this issue to some extent, but the recent investigative deep dive on LG smart TVs done by Gamers Nexus sheds light on just how far this truly goes.

There's way too much in that 2-hour, 15-minute video and follow-up videos for me to cover here, but the long and short of it is that Gamers Nexus says its testing found LG TVs capturing audio through the built-in microphones in the TV and remote and tracking what you watch.

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