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When Personalization Runs Amuck

Posted by Hemos on from the swf-or-not dept.

pamar writes "According to this article from the Wall Street Journal, your TiVo could definitely get the wrong impression about your interests, or even your sexual preferences. And what you need to do to get "a clean slate"? Most of the users who have been "targeted" by TiVo usually try to "correct" the profiling by showing an abnormal interest in something wildly different." Yep, it's a dupe.

2 of 198 comments (clear)

  1. Read The Manual! by stevelup · · Score: 5, Informative

    All you have to do is go into the system setup menu and select "Reset Thumb Data".

    It will forget everything it ever might have thought about you...

    Mind you, expecting journalists to read the instruction manual before making wild statements is of course too much to ask...

  2. Suggestions for more accuracy by Do+not+eat · · Score: 4, Informative

    Got problems with the shows TiVo records as suggestions? Well, try these methods to fix it:

    Edit your "Channels You Receive" to remove channels you aren't interested in at all.

    Look at the "TiVo Suggestions" for upcoming shows and rate them using the thumbs up/dowm method. Give three thumbs-down to major mistakes.

    Take a moment to rate shows it has recorded before deleting them.

    Rate your season passes. TiVo will automatically give anything you record 1 thumb-up. If you've got a season pass for something in a genre, or with actors, you'd typically dislike, rate the season pass with multiple thumbs-down (it'll still be recorded.) Do this as well for the one-off items you record (especially if your recording for guests.)

    If all else fails, punch the reset button. Somewhere in setup you can tell TiVo to start over in building it's profile.