Glasshouse: in the two days after the LG TV recording scandal, someone open-sourced a tool that lets you switch it off. 60 days, 1891 stars

Early 2026 September, Gamers Nexus and Level1Techs published an investigation: LG TVs keep recording even in standby, even with the internet cut off, and they scan your home network. From Sep 7 to 14, The Verge, Ars Technica, The Register and Engadget kept the story going, and LG issued a denial on Sep 12. On Sep 7, a developer called rorygallagher2024 created a GitHub repo for a control console for rooted LG TVs. Two weeks later it was renamed Glasshouse. By Nov 6 it had 1891 stars. Over the same storm, a dozen similar projects appeared, and Glasshouse got more than four times the stars of the runner-up. Why it worked, and whether you can pull off the same play, is what this piece breaks down.

"You bought this TV"

The first block of the README, on opening, states the author's position:

You bought the TV. It's your TV and you should control it. You own the glass.

("The TV is yours, it should be under your control. The screen is yours.") followed by "I don't want your data."

These lines later became its titles on Reddit. The first post on r/webos was titled "You bought the TV, you control the TV, you own the glass…", and the September 27 post on r/LGOLED was called "Owning the glass again". In October 1, a user on r/LGOLED put it plainly: he wanted to root his TV and install Glasshouse to use its privacy features against LG's monitoring, "as mentioned in the revelations of gamernexus".

What it is

A small server that runs on the TV itself (MIT license, JavaScript). First root the TV with Homebrew Channel, then on a computer on the same LAN run ./deploy.sh <TV IP>, and open the TV's 8080 port in a browser to see a control panel.

The panel does a lot. The README lists 13 items; the ones ordinary people care most about are these:

• One-click off for ads and telemetry, including LG's content recognition (ACR, the system that lets the TV "recognize what you're watching"). Every data consent you've given is listed out, and most can be withdrawn directly.
• Debloat: uninstall apps and turn off unused background services to free memory.
• Replace the home screen: no ads, and you can add your own IPTV channels.
• OLED care: cumulative panel hours, compensation cycles, a countdown to pixel refresh. Even burn-in protection switches like ASBL, which normally need the service remote and a PIN, are surfaced in plain view.
• Service menu: open LG's service menu on the TV straight from the browser, and unlock it even on new firmware that has locked it down.
• There are also key remapping, a dozen screensavers, an MQTT bridge for Home Assistant, and an Android companion app.

The author published a table of tested models: 66 TVs across 43 series, from 2015 to 2026, on webOS 2.2 to 11.

Why this one took off

Timing. The repo was created at the peak of the scandal coverage. The Verge story on HN scored 589 points with 359 comments, and readers' mood was "I want to turn this off", which Glasshouse made possible.

The root barrier dropped just then. Rage alone isn't enough; the TV has to be rootable. At about the same time, throwaway96's SlopBro made webOS 4 through 11 rootable, including newer 2025 and 2026 models. A TikTok video, "Jailbreaking my parents LG TV #slopbro", reached 356k views (September 13). A wave of LG owners who would never have touched this poured into r/webos and r/LGOLED.

It took the "what to install after rooting" spot. People who had just rooted asked what to do next, and the community's answer grew more uniform. A late-October newcomer PSA on r/webos put it flatly: "Glasshouse seems to be the popular all-in-one solution". Other projects did one thing each; this one covered all of the TV's local controls, installed with one script.

Fast updates, and every update is a new post. 60 days produced 136 minor releases; 879 commits carry "Co-authored-by: Claude", i.e. the release pace of AI-assisted coding. Every major feature (custom home screen, internet TV on the home screen, Hearth-compatible themes) got its own post on r/webos or r/LGOLED.

Where users come from

There are no day-by-day figures before October 17; from that day on:

A few points worth noting: mainstream media covered the scandal but never wrote about Glasshouse; there is no Hacker News post about it, and almost nobody mentioned it on X; the only findable YouTube item is a Short with 6800 views. Nearly all its stars were accumulated one post at a time across two vertical subreddits. Among the contributors is Matt Layher (57 commits), a well-known developer in Go networking, which shows insiders take it seriously too.

Who it's competing with

Two things stand out. First, on the root-LG path it is already the default answer, and copycats have already appeared (native-tv, created in October 29 with a description almost word for word the same, 11 stars). Building another one gets you nothing. Second, what really exploded was free-my-tv, which needs no root and at its peak gained 1234 stars in a single day: the root barrier is Glasshouse's ceiling.

Where it stands now

In the last 7 days it gained 434 stars, against 7 in the first 539 days. It is cooling but not stopping; as of November 5 code is still being pushed. There are 49 open issues, so people are really using it. The biggest uncertainty is on LG's side: once a vulnerability like SlopBro is patched, fewer people can root, and the new-user supply dries up with it.

If it were you

C. Don't build another root kit for LG TVs; the spot is taken. What you can learn is the playbook, but it needs two things at once: a vendor privacy scandal, plus a door that has just opened (a new jailbreak, a new vulnerability). The window isn't yours to control.

Who it suits: developers already active in a hardware hacking or self-hosting scene (webOS, Tizen, Google TV, routers, robot vacuums), who own a working device and can ship a complete tool within days. People already on Home Assistant fit best; that crowd loves to star things.

Who it doesn't suit: anyone wanting to build another panel, home screen or blocklist for LG (followers sit at tens to a few hundred stars); anyone without the matching device who can't test dozens of models; anyone hoping to make money from it (this category rewards fame).

How to do it: keep watch for two kinds of news at all times: "some appliance caught leaking data" and "some system got a new jailbreak". When the two collide, be first to ship the "what to install after jailbreaking" bundle, not a single-purpose gadget. Frame features as benefits ordinary people understand: one-click tracking off, burn-in protection, getting into the service menu without the service remote. Put the stance on the first screen of the README and the tested-model table on the second. The nearest open slot is the same thing on Samsung Tizen and Google TV (whether someone has already done it is unverified).

How to get users: post a first post in the device's vertical subreddits (places like r/webos and r/LGOLED), with your stance as the title; afterward, post each major feature separately, one small spike per post. Don't count on HN or X: Glasshouse made it on neither.

Deadline: have a working build within the week the scandal coverage peaks. Glasshouse's repo was created the same day the coverage came out.

Signs you've misjudged it: (1) After the next appliance privacy scandal, if the first all-in-one counter-tool gets fewer than 30 stars in 500 days, this time was a one-off stroke of luck from the LG storm colliding with SlopBro; (2) if no-root tools like free-my-tv build privacy features in, the root-kit spot shrinks overall; (3) conversely, if Glasshouse still gains hundreds of stars a week after LG patches the hole, "the default bundle after root" is a durable position and worth more than this piece estimates.

Data and sources

• GitHub: the README, commits and release history of rorygallagher2024/glasshouse; day-by-day stars (10-17 to 11-06).
• Scandal coverage: The Verge and Ars Technica (09-08), LG's official statement (09-12); the score and comment count of the HN thread on The Verge story.
• Reddit: author and user posts on r/webos and r/LGOLED, content taken from search summaries (the Reddit pages could not be opened directly).
• TikTok: play count of lagtech123's jailbreak video (09-13); YouTube: the @CodeGlade Short; TinkerNews (11-05).
• Competitor star counts from GitHub (11-06).