I’d not buy a LG monitor

There is a video by Gamers Nexus making the rounds that makes me really angry. It reports about LG’s latest practise to add blatant spyware to a monitor. Or to be precise to the *software* application associated with that monitor. The icing is that Windows apparently automatically downloads this software by default and this thing starts – without consent – to display ads. It’s ToS also explicitly allows “wiretapping” and “eavesdropping” and it’s the user’s responsibility to obtain consent from anyone in the room.

It seems to also affect the “somewhat” expensive UltraGear model line but apparently also older models.

It also does only affect Windows PC users.

As a Linux PC user I’m still hopping mad at this behaviour and after you watch that video you’ll probably be very angry too. That’s right. I’m not affected by this at all because we do not even get a fancy app on top. Guess I dodged another bullet in 2026 by simply not having Windows.

I do own the 45gx950a-b UltraGear for my flight and space sim desires. It is an awesome display. The best I ever had. Having this thing sitting on my table for half a year now and so far no burn in effect or any issues even with heavy use as work machine for coding. It’s built in audio sucks but who cares, using headphones most of the time anyway.

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Still, that thing costs some money. Like a lot. And even if it wouldn’t: In what timeline is this acceptable behaviour by a fucking monitor to tell it’s manufacturer what [naughty] video you’re currently watching?

To add insult to injury I opened their official website today to check again on it’s specs. I was curious if the website would mention this new “feature”. I was greeted with an ad. An ad asking me to gamble with a wheel of fortune to roll me a nice discount. What kind of bullshit is that? It’s also “on sale”. As in “clearance sale”.

And this, people, is the reason I was looking for a *dumb* TV in 2002.

I’d not buy a LG monitor again. And you shouldn’t too.