From: CJ Kucera <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
On Tue, Feb 03, 2004 at 03:02:11PM -0500, Bryon Daly wrote:
> So TiVo's report "home" not just what you're watching on a second-by-second
> basis, but when you're rewinding/reviewing things? WTF? I don't have a
> TiVo: Do they tell you up front when you buy/install one that they'll be
> monitoring your viewing habits constantly - not just with what you watch,
> but how you watch it?
It seems as though they've been mostly upfront about it:
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106_2-1012372.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/business/0,39020645,2135489,00.htm
They claim that actual customer data is separated out from the aggregate statistics they use for that kind of reporting.
I guess the real crux of the issue for me is that I don't think they have any business gathering that information in the first place; it is not necessary for them to do so, and they don't get it as a natural result of the service they provide (as opposed to, say, supermarkets tracking your spending habits using your grocery discount card).
TiVo users let their TiVo's dial-in so that they can download the current program listings. They *pay* a monthly/yearly fee for this service. Making the TiVo upload user behavior data is pure snoopery, whether or not they only aggregatize it.
Maybe it's paranoid, but I just don't like the trend of appliances that want to connect up and share info about your behavior.
Plus, there's my horror scenario:
TV broadcast and cable networks use this behavior data to prove that - *gasp* - viewers are skipping over commercials! Why, that's *THEFT*. (Don't laugh - I've already seen this argument presented seriously). Lobby pressure builds on Congress to act on the "billions of lost dollars" this theft causes, and we get a new law requiring all new video-recording/playback devices to have chips in them that prevent skipping over commercials. With of course any circumvention methods being made illegal by the DMCA.
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