Smart TVs have evolved from simple living room displays into active data-gathering hubs. Between targeted banner ads, voice-assistant listening, and automatic content recognition, today's TVs track far more than just what movie you are watching.According to a recent technical investigation by Gamers Nexus and Level1Techs (and reported by Ars Technica), certain LG Smart TVs running webOS are capable of scanning local Wi-Fi networks (LAN) to identify secondary devices like smartphones and smartwatches, connected to the same household network.You, however, don't have to tolerate uninvited network snooping in your living room. By adjusting a few buried default settings, you can lock down your television's privacy in under five minutes.Here is how LG's background scanning works, and the exact steps to turn it off.How smart TVs track your home networkMost users assume that agreeing to a TV's privacy policy simply allows the built-in apps to stream video. In reality, modern webOS systems utilize several overlapping background services designed to monetize user data.Local network scanning: Using built-in discovery protocols, the TV scans your Wi-Fi network to identify other connected smart devices, helping advertisers build a broader profile of your household.Automatic content recognition (ACR): Feature settings like "Live Plus" analyze on-screen pixels and audio cues to identify every show, movie, or ad you watch — even from external devices like cable boxes or gaming consoles.Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips.Always-on microphones: Voice recognition services and "Always Ready" modes keep the TV's internal or remote listening for wake words, logging audio requests to cloud servers.How to turn off tracking and network scanning on LG Smart TVsYou can block background network scanning, targeted ads, and active listening by navigating to a few key areas in your LG webOS settings menu.