LG recently pushed an update that quietly added a Microsoft Copilot app to webOS. It can’t be uninstalled, only hidden. Engadget covered it here: https://www.engadget.com/ai/lg-quietly-added-an-unremovable-microsoft-copilot-app-to-tvs-235923754.html

That was the point where I stopped trusting the TV with full internet access. I didn’t buy an AI spying device. I bought a screen and I want to stay it like that. 

All streaming in my home is done via Apple TV. I’m an Apple fanboy, I trust Apple’s stance on user data, they say they don’t sell or share it, and so far they’ve kept a clean record. Apple TV does the smart stuff. The LG TV just shows the picture and does upscaling and HDMI. Nothing else. Also it's good to mantion that Apple UI's is much better and smooth compared to WebOS. 

My idea was just to block internet access on all my tv's, but I want to keep local access, so my Home Assisntant will continue to control it for plenty of automations. 

I really like the mikrotik routers and my home network is based on it, so blocking the access for particular devices from it .... is simple task 

Add the TVs to an address list:

/ip firewall address-list
add list=lg_tvs address=192.168.1.50
add list=lg_tvs address=192.168.1.51

Allow LAN traffic:

/ip firewall filter
add chain=forward src-address-list=lg_tvs dst-address=192.168.0.0/16 action=accept

Block internet access:

/ip firewall filter
add chain=forward src-address-list=lg_tvs out-interface-list=WAN action=drop

Result is simple. LG cloud features, ads and AI junk are gone.

My TV is a screen again.

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