Slashdot Mirror
TiVo Watches the Super Bowl
Boone^ writes: "While millions of people were seeing a tremendous football game, TiVo was busy collecting statistics about the Super Bowl viewing habits of its subscribers. Based on a random sampling of 10,000 of the 280,000 subscribers, they found out that Pepsi/Britney was the subject of the most replayed Ad(s), and not surprisingly the play that got the most attention was Vinatieri's game-winning FG."
Clearly the whole point of the survey was for them to say "Hey advertisers! Look! This technology is a GOOD thing for you, not a BAD thing."
Of course, one of the reasons people watch the Superbowl is FOR the ads. I don't think I've ever watched a single ad when fast-forwarding through Battle-Bots.
-S
--- What parts of "shall make no law", "shall not be infringed", and "shall not be violated" don't you understand?
Actually, this is a little misleading. While I have no doubt that a large number of people watch the game for the ads, the survey is skewered towards TiVO owners, not the Super Bowl watching population at large. While nowhere near the same of importance, it's the same factor that lead to the "Dewey Defeats Truman" headline (the headline was predicted based on a phone survey, one of the first of it's kind. Since few had telephones, except for the rich, the survey skewered towards their tastes, which was for Dewey.)
Beware typoes.
Be realistic, we all know that there are enough instant replays in American Football to begin with.. I watched the game, and I have a Tivo... While I am not that much of a football fan, I never felt compelled to use any of the trick play features of my Tivo simply because every play was already replayed for me from 27 different angles...
My coworkers are big soccer (football) fans, and they use the Tivo to create their own instant replays, because unlike football, the networks don't really replay much for you...
Just to elaborate on the other responses...
Tivo gave us a VERY detailed message about this... along with a very easy opt-out system. They outlined that the information being collected was purely statistical and would not be linked to an individual user. I thought they handled it well.
Turn s60 photos into awesome videos with mScrapbook for all S60 3rd edition phones!
I don't want to hear it if you a) don't have a Tivo and b) haven't looked into what exact data they collect.
Privacy people tend to get all spazzy on here, and work everyone else up into a tizzy, and in the case of Tivo, its not even remotely warranted.
This sort of thing is what keeps Tivo going. This is a new market and it takes a long time to start breaking even. I have zero problem with Tivo doing this, if it allows me to continue using their service which, frankly, I can't imagine having to do without.
Tivo has been a company that from day one has been extremely concerned about privacy rights, and open communication with their users. If you spend any time browsing the Tivo forums at http://www.tivocommunity.com you'll see that not only do they have a powerful support presense, they are very open about what they collect, how its analyzed, and how its sold. People in the underground community independantly verified what they were saying.
So, basically, everyone relax. Step away from the keyboard, and go unpause Jerry Springer on the Tivo. That's where the real excitement is, not here.
Personally I would prefer to watch ads that are customised for me. If that's what's paying for the show I'm watching then they may as well be interesting.
Think of it like this: They have a table with your name and account number on. They have another that records what programmes were watched by what account number. The only real problem appears when the two are put together; and even then it depends who is going to receive the information and how easy it is for them to get it.
If you let them show what YOU like to watch, then more porgrams of what YOU like to watch will become more common, and the programs that YOU HATE will start to disappear. How is that bad? Duh?
I wonder what the cost benefit analysis of avoiding these kinds of things would be?
There are so many ways to collect personal data about your habits. People put up with it because
it means they can save money or it provides a
significant convenience.
<off-topic>
Example: Most supermarkets in my area now give
discounts only to holders of their courtesy cards,
rather than by using coupons. For awhile the
clerk would use their card if you didn't have
yours but they've stopped doing that now.
They really want to collect that personal
marketing data on you.
</off-topic>
Well, it's all nice as long as it's all about "girls with bouncy breasts". But what if your government decides to classify you as a terrorist sympathizer because, unlike the rest of the apathetic population, you watched some alternative news coverage? What if your insurance company decides you are too much of a risk because you like to watch car races, watch porn of some kind or other, or watch too many MacDonald's commercials?
While I agree NOW they will do what they say, in the future who knows. And that is what would have me worried. The problem with data gathering is that data lives on long after the fact. And once it is data it cannot be taken back.
There is absolutely no law (in the US) that deals with how the data can be used. It is only the privacy policy of TiVO that dictates what is done.
Lets take the example of a company like Budweiser saying, "you know I want you to send out the new Budweiser commercial to all those that replayed our commercial". Budweiser then says, "hey to do that we will give you X dollars as compensation for your effort". Will TiVO say no to this? Absolutely not. TiVO is playing nice person now because they need to the data to convince the likes the Budweiser.
So sorry, I would opt out without any legally binding laws or legally binding data expiration laws.
"You can't make a race horse of a pig"
"No," said Samuel, "but you can make very fast pig"
Tivo explicitly promises not to use anything more specific than a zip code to identify your viewing details (see point 1.3 of their privacy policy); and that's nothing like as specific as you seem to think - unless everyone in Beverley Hills 90210 lives in the same house. Even UK postcodes aren't that precise: it's simply not true to say that "if i give my postcode to some companies they can tell exactly which house iam living in," unless your house is the size of a football pitch.
And if you don't want Tivo to collect your data at all, you can simply tell them not to. This is clearly stated in their terms and conditions - and indeed in the PrivacyWatch report you quote. Okay, you have to phone them, rather than pushing a button, but it's an offer they're under no obligation to make at all. And they even give you a toll-free number to call!
So I don't see any grounds for complaint. I mean, the users get a service they clearly love (see Slashdot stories passim) for a price they're happy to pay; the advertisers get invaluable data, freely given and broadly anonymous, again for a price they're happy to pay; and Tivo gets the revenue from both sides. Personally, I think that's wonderful. Tivo have managed to broker a stunning win-win business model, and best of luck to them.
I want TiVo to succeed because I own their equipment and give them money each month to provide service. They seem to be fairly in touch with their customers also - I like them.
The data available now via the internet and the software available to interact with it is a long, long way from providing TiVo like service. I guess that could change someday but I don't see it happening soon.
Amen. This is the same argument I was going for in this thread.
Apparently, this sort of data collection is OK, because TiVos are 'cool' and PVR technology needs to be fostered. I totally agree that they are, but so is Windows Media Player (IMHO). If it sent filenames back to Microsoft of all streams I watched, but let you opt out of it, the same people defending TiVo would be quite literally foaming at the mouth.
Karma: Excellent Birds (mostly as a result of listening to Laurie Anderson)
A. you can opt out of data collection if you want (you did read the manual right?)
B. they don't log 'mr. x has watched the slashdot show' they log 'someone in zipcode 1234 has watched the slashdot show'
Oh, and I just "discovered" the other day that some http servers actually these things called refer logs, that not only log your IP and what page you're visiting but where you came from; in some cases being able to detect search engine keywords used to get to that page. Given the fact that they could call up your ISP and request modem and customer information it's possible that they could do a heck of alot more damage than knowing you're a grown man who still watches teletubbies.
(...but since this is slashdot we'll completely ignore anything factual)
- MbM
Why on earth is this marked as funny? I think the poster was serious, and I agree with him 100% We tend to here a lot of griping around here when somone is collecting information on us, but I'll tell them almost anything they want to know if it can genuinly improve my life. I DO NOT want them to know and single out me specifically, but if they can figure out that everyone starts channel surfing when a certain over-sized whiny voiced obnoxious celebrity pops onto our screen for a commercial, shouldn't we be gratefull?/p.
Dozings.com -- Its kinda funny... If you're as crazy as me.