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Tivo Tracks Superbowl Viewing Habits
ThePretender writes "Sprinkled in the Janet Jackson boob stories is an alarming bit of information: Tivo tracks subscribers' viewing habits. They know how many times the boob was viewed, among other good-to-have (meaning data worth $$) information. Yes, if you agreed to Tivo's privacy policy you knew they could do this, with the promise that you aren't identifiable. Put on the tin foil hats? Or just another way for them to keep your monthly fee down (snicker)." A story from 2002 has more information and makes clear that Tivo does have the capability to record every click you make on the remote control, at all times. Previously Tivo said they tracked 10,000 people for the Super Bowl, this year 20,000.
The Attorney General(head of law enforcement) and an evangelical christian, super right wing. A couple of years ago he had two statues of justice covered with curtains because they had a breast showing.
Hi, do you know anything about TiVo? You see, there's this "subscription" you have to sign up for, which lets you use all the bells and whistles of the machine. In that "subscription" you have to provide things like, oh, your name, age, gender, and even credit card number! Of course they're going to keep this information on file. Wouldn't you? Oh, I forgot, you're a Slashdot Privacy Zealot who sees boogeymen everywhere.
And for that matter, who gives a shit if Kroger knows that I buy condoms? I get a discount on my groceries, and they get information. So, essentially, they're buying my information (or, if you like, I'm selling my information to them). I honestly don't care if they know that I buy condoms. Hell, they could determine that by using cameras at the checkout counter. But are you in arms about that? Of course not.
And finally, you summarize it all with "OMG WTF teh goverment will get j00 OMG LOL". What are you worried about? If the store sees that I've bought a few thousand pounds of fertilizer in the past week, they might trip an alarm and I get a visit from the FBI. I explain to them I'm maintaining gardens for a local park, and there's no problem. I lose 5 minutes of my day answering the FBI's questions. Wah.
When you move out of your parents' basement and start living in the Real World, you'll understand.
It's possible that if somebody was watching illegal content, the cops could get a warrant, grab the TiVo, and then have a log of every remote click that the TiVo heard, even those for devices other than the TiVo.
Unless, of course, they suspected you of terrorism, then they could do all of the above without the warrant.
I can't figure out how one would watch TV in a manner that would be a terrorist threat, but I could see a government agency wanting to use this information in profiling. If they discovered that 99.999% of terrorists watch reruns of Ba Ba Blacksheep, then they could use the Tivo data to track the bad guys...
A little far fetched, but I'd have said that about warantless searches and indefinited detentions a few years ago.
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Don't forget his crazy color coded warning system. Like anybody cares about an orange terroist level anymore.