> But there is a catch here. TiVo uses UUNET dialup access to upload their files.
There's a bigger catch: What info does DirecTV collect about you? What info did my DSS box collect and send back to DirecTV in the regular phone call? Who does DirecTV sell my personal info to?
There are better rocks to look under -- start with your digital cable company, your sat providers, and Microsoft's new Ultimate TV. I haven't seen a privacy policy from any of them.
That information about Anonymous Coward is mixed in with information about all the other Anonymous Cowards before anything is done with it. So all they really know is that 34 or 112 Anonymous Cowards watch ABC religiously from 6 to 9PM, etc.
Developers do have a say in what products get developed -- they vote with their feet.
If I start a company that develops software you don't want to write, you're probably not going to come work for my company.
In a for-profit company, someone has to figure out what the customer wants. Sometimes engineering can do this, other times its sales, but it's usually the folks over in product marketing who do all the research. Letting the engineers vote on what features the product will have is going to take customers out of the loop. (Unless, of course, the engineers are developing
for people who think exactly like they do.)
Companies who make things that nobody wants to buy typically go out of business (Masscomp, Kendall Square Research) or change their product line entirely to something they think people will buy (General Magic)
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>As far as I can tell, TiVO could work without transmitting any information to HQ. Just download the listings and do all processing on the machine.
Yup. Call TiVo customer support and tell them you want to opt out and be completely anonymous. No information will be collected.
> But there is a catch here. TiVo uses UUNET dialup access to upload their files.
There's a bigger catch: What info does DirecTV collect about you? What info did my DSS box collect and send back to DirecTV in the regular phone call? Who does DirecTV sell my personal info to?
There are better rocks to look under -- start with your digital cable company, your sat providers, and Microsoft's new Ultimate TV. I haven't seen a privacy policy from any of them.
That information about Anonymous Coward is mixed in with information about all the other Anonymous Cowards before anything is done with it. So all they really know is that 34 or 112 Anonymous Cowards watch ABC religiously from 6 to 9PM, etc.
>they will continue to take your money *and* sell your data to slim bag marketing firms!
Wrongo. Call the TiVo customer support number and they'll flip the switch that turns off the ANONYMOUS logging of your viewing habits.
Or, if you're of the mind, you can have them flip the switch that attaches your name, etc, to all your viewing habits.
Developers do have a say in what products get developed -- they vote with their feet.
If I start a company that develops software you don't want to write, you're probably not going to come work for my company.
In a for-profit company, someone has to figure out what the customer wants. Sometimes engineering can do this, other times its sales, but it's usually the folks over in product marketing who do all the research. Letting the engineers vote on what features the product will have is going to take customers out of the loop. (Unless, of course, the engineers are developing for people who think exactly like they do.)
Companies who make things that nobody wants to buy typically go out of business (Masscomp, Kendall Square Research) or change their product line entirely to something they think people will buy (General Magic)
It purports to integrate with an LDAP server, but I didn't try out those bits.
Since I set up MeetingMaker, nobody has mentioned the word "Exchange".