In Soviet US, Comcast Watches YOU

cayenne8 sends us to Newteevee.com for a blog posting reporting from the Digital Living Room conference earlier this week. Gerard Kunkel, Comcast's senior VP of user experience, stated that the cable company is experimenting with different camera technologies built into its devices so it can know who's in your living room. Cameras in the set-top boxes, while apparently not using facial recognition software, can still somehow figure out who is in the room, and customize user preferences for cable (favorite channels, etc.). While this sounds 'handy,' it also sounds a bit like the TV sets in 1984. I am sure, of course, that Comcast wouldn't tap into this for any reason, nor let the authorities tap into this to watch inside your home in real time without a warrant or anything."

Comments

Ah well ...

[ScrewMaster]

This is one privacy issue that a little electrical tape can cure easily.

Re:Ah well ...

[Naughty Bob]

This is one privacy issue that a little electrical tape can cure easily.

Using the electrical tape will be classed as theft, as you are preventing the business from optimizing, and thus maximizing the revenue derived from, the advertising. Puts me, albeit tenuously, in mind of a quote I saw recently-

In the 1980s capitalism triumphed over communism. In the 1990s it triumphed over democracy.

Re:Ah well ...

[MasaMuneCyrus]

I predict if this comes to pass, child pornography will be brought up in defensed of warrantlessly spying on people using this technology.

Re:Ah well ...

[pla]

they can't make that illegal because they've already told to lay in plenty of duct tape in case of a chemical attack.

"Make the most of Indian hemp seed and sow it everywhere!" - George Washington

Re:Ah well ...

[Original Replica]

I mean really why do people put up with this? It's almost as if people are too lazy to defend their privacy and too eager to whine about their problems or something.

In a way, whining about this in a widely read forum like Slashdot, is defending our privacy. Public awareness is the first step towards stopping things like this. Now the American public has an almost zero attention span, so awareness has to be loud and alarmist to even register on the social consciousness. To add to that problem, the evening news is alarmist about everything because it gains ratings, but further buries any real problems from getting the attention they need in order to be resolved.

Re:Ah well ...

[Original Replica]

First, no it isn't. It's whining.

OK, how would you suggest raising public awareness about this? I only heard about it because it was posted here in Slashdot.

Slashdot isn't really that big, and the audience is very self-selecting for certain points of view.

Says user number 1,243,248. If Slashdot were a city that population would make it the ninth largest city in the US, between San Diego and Dallas. Yes audience is self selecting, this is a site mostly made of nerds with a libertarian bent. There is, at least, an effort to stay informed and back up statements with facts.

Re:Ah well ...

[Omestes]

Face it, Slashdot is a SMALL community.

Not to commit /. boosterism, but what, then, is a large community? A million people is a lot of people, a whole lot of people. Before the internet got large (since what, 95?) I doubt we ever would have considered >1m to be small.

Besides it isn't about /. being an action network, its about, to use distasteful political speak, conscious raising. If you have a million or so concerned individuals, these individuals have friends, participate in other forums, etc... thus a local fervor on /. can spread wildly to other areas, since 1m people is pretty good for critical momentum. What local group in meatspace do you belong where you have the potential to be heard by this number of people, especially in a conversational format? Look at the Digg brouhaha last May 1, for an example. Also with such a large userbase, and such a huge amount of content, /. is over represented on places like Google (where we are often #1 in the news section lately), which do, potentially, have a wider reach.

I also wouldn't say that we're that limited in the ideologies of the user-base. I'd say we skew towards mid-high income brackets, and towards the more libertarian techies, but thats not to say that they are a large majority. Look how many left-right, socialism-libertarianism debates plague YRO daily. We even have a share of Christian fundies resident. And while American's are the majority, we definitely have a LARGE share of folk from other countries/cultures to balance things out.

We represent a large array of international basement dwellers, in other words.

1984

[mikeabbott420]

A 'bit' like 1984? Who in the hell would go for this? Americans seem to have managed to convince their politicians and corporations that they have no interest in freedom at all.

Re:1984

[George Beech]

Politicians and corporations seem to have managed to convince Americans that they have no interest in freedom at all

fixed it for ya

Re:1984

[coaxial]

A 'bit' like 1984? Actually this more reminds of Max Headroom.

Who in the hell would go for this? The vast majority of people.

Americans seem to have managed to convince their politicians and corporations that they have no interest in freedom at all Because a majority Americans apparently don't.

Oh and this is perfectly okay since it's a corporation and not a government because companies are beholden to a small number of hyper wealthy share holders as opposed to the populous. And companies never do anything wrong! Why would they? I mean look at the housing market. Rolling along! Look at the energy markets where it was finally let loose of the yoke of government regulation! Enron! Worldcom! Bear Stearns! These are pillars of industry. Truly, we should simply have more faith in the wisdom of our betters.

Already there?

[symbolset]

What makes you think the camera is not already there? Have you disassembled your cable box?

Food for thought. Your cable box could have a camera already. If you have cable internet you know it has enough bandwidth for monitoring you.

Re:It will get forced on us

[Zymergy]

Well.... that is until someone's underage teenage son and his underage girlfriend decide to shed all their clothes and have brazen sex in front of the cable box... The legal details of that scenario would be very interesting...
-What does legally happen when some adult's Comacast 1984-style bidirectional TV box "inadvertently" observes illegal underage nudity and sex. I am sure if this data was in any way streamed over their network there would be numerous state and federal laws violated (or if it were retained in any way), not to mention grounds for a very hefty lawsuit.
It would make for some interesting legal reading in any case.

Re:They knew who I was.

[aurispector]

Heh. It's hard to believe someone thought this was a good idea. After the recent warrentless wiretap fiasco, it's brutally obvious that this would be abused by some government agency somewhere. Fascists exist in every society.