posted 02-03-2004 10:32 PM            

TiVO admits their TV products can spy on consumers...build profiles.

posted 02-03-2004 10:34 PM            

http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2003/05/08/future_tv/index_np.html

By Farhad Manjoo

May 8, 2003 | Several years ago, Predictive Networks, a software company based in Cambridge, Mass., set out to determine what it could tell about a person based on how he or she used a television remote control.

Predictive discovered that by recording every button-press on a remote and analyzing the resulting data, the company could pick out distinct "channel surfing patterns." After learning these patterns, Predictive's software could determine which one of several members of a household has control of the TV at any particular time. Predictive found that men and women use the TV remote control quite differently; during commercial breaks, men engage in a kind of rapid-fire channel surfing, while women tend to switch to only one or two other channels, if they surf at all.

When the company combines this remote-usage data with information on the shows and ads that the person using the remote has watched, its software can guess whether a viewer is male or female. And, because your channel-surfing behavior is significantly affected by others in the room, Predictive can also tell whether there is more than one person watching the television.

The company's software -- which it now sells for use in cable and satellite set-top boxes -- builds digital profiles of each person regularly using a particular TV, a statistical analysis of your TV tendencies that functions as a sketchy picture of your personality. Peter Mondics, Predictive's CEO, says that his software can get to know you quite well. It can, for instance, suggest with surprising accuracy what you may want to watch on TV.

posted 02-05-2004 01:51 PM            

Television Week

Could the federal government find out what you're watching on TV? Even if you're not the subject of a criminal investigation?

If you're a satellite TV or TiVo owner, the answer is yes, according to legal experts and industry officials.

Under the USA Patriot Act, passed a month after the 9/11 terrorist attack, the feds can force a noncable TV operator to disclose every show you have watched. The government just has to say that the request is related to a terrorism investigation, said Jay Stanley, a technology expert for the American Civil Liberties Union.

Under Section 215 of the Act, you don't even have to be the target of the investigation. Plus, your TV provider is prohibited from informing you that the feds have requested your personal information.

"The language is very broad," Mr. Stanley said. "It allows the FBI to force a company to turn over the records of their customers. They don't even need a reasonable suspicion of criminal behavior."

David Sobel, general counsel for the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a Washington think tank, said the Cable Act of 1984 gives cable operators greater protection against the Patriot Act. Cable companies do not have to release an individual's records unless the feds show that the person is the target of a criminal investigation. Even then, the individual must be notified of the request, which he can then challenge in court.

"The Patriot Act does not override the Cable Act," Mr. Sobel said.

You couldn't blame the satellite TV industry for feeling a little vulnerable these days. DirecTV, for instance, collects a large amount of individual data, such as program package orders, pay-per-view orders and even online purchases via the DirecTV-Wink interactive shopping service. The Justice Department could ask DirecTV to disclose whether you subscribe to Playboy or purchased Viagra if it would help an investigation.

But Andy Wright, president of the Satellite Broadcasting Communications Association, the industry's trade group, said he does not believe the feds will make frivolous requests.

"They still have to issue a subpoena to get the data," he said. "Even in today's environment, I can't imagine a judge would approve a subpoena that is not warranted."

However, the ACLU's Mr. Stanley said the Patriot Act is different because the government can get the order from the special Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court rather than a judicial court.

"It's not like a subpoena. The standards are much weaker than [in] a criminal case," Mr. Stanley said.

But Mr. Wright contended that satellite TV viewers should not be concerned that they will be subjected to improper searches. The satellite chief added he's not sure the federal government needs to give dish owners the same protection as cable viewers.

"I would have to study that more before supporting that," Mr. Wright said.
ANXIOUS TIMES

The Patriot Act, which Attorney General John Ashcroft said is crucial to fighting terrorism in the United States, has scared many civil libertarians. However, the possibility that the feds could use the law to learn about your viewing habits has been overlooked until now.

posted 02-06-2004 09:36 AM            

TiVo users, beware: Big Brother's watching

February 5, 2004

BY PHIL ROSENTHAL TELEVISION CRITIC

Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson exposed more than her distinctive taste in jewelry at halftime of the Super Bowl.

You know TiVo? That newfangled digital video recorder that enables you to watch live telecasts as if they were on tape and remembers to record your favorite shows even when you don't?

Justin and Janet's little dance with community standards served to remind us that when we watch TiVo, our TiVo can watch us.

"The close of Timberlake and Jackson's halftime duet drew the biggest spike in audience reaction TiVo has ever measured," the company said in a news release issued Monday. "Viewership spiked up to 180 percent as viewers used unique TiVo DVR capabilities to pause and replay live television to view the incident again and again."

You thought no one else knew you went back to see if you saw what you thought you saw, that you put Jackson's image on freeze frame so you could show your spouse and your pals or how you went back and forth to watch Justin tear Janet's dress, put it back, tear it and so on.

Turns out there was a spy in the room with you, taking notes, keeping track of every click on your remote control. Your TiVo box may have been paying closer attention to what you were watching than you were.

Monday's revelation was based on a random sampling of 20,000 TiVo boxes. The owners of those boxes were unaware they were being tracked during the Super Bowl, but TiVo says it knows next to nothing about the box owners. Owners like you. Like me.

"It noticed that boxes were doing that, but it didn't notice it was Phil's box that was doing that," TiVo spokesman Scott Sutherland said, explaining that, despite the phone hookup that allows your box to exchange info with the company's home computer, very little data on your habits is shared typically. "We don't need to know who you are to make sure TiVo records 'Friends' for you."

That's some relief. But the potential for TiVo to know more and sell that info is obvious. A deal between TiVo and A.C. Nielsen, the firm that monitors overall TV viewership, was announced Wednesday that will have a group of TiVo users volunteering to have their viewing monitored for just that purpose.

So long as we stay out of that group, Sutherland says we shouldn't worry even though our TiVo box can notice which channels we zap past and on which channels we pause.

He says it should be of no concern the box can log which commercials we sit through, which ones we fast-forward over and which ones we rerun again and again because they're more entertaining than regular programming.

TiVo, he says, has no reason to pinpoint the exact moment at which we give up on Jay Leno's monologue and return to David Letterman or to Ted Koppel or to that late-night flick on Cinemax. Not yet anyway.

"I'm terrified every time I get on an airplane that it's going to fall out of the sky, but I know that it's much more reasonable to believe ... that plane is going to take off and land where it's supposed to go," Sutherland said. "I understand people have privacy concerns [about TiVo]. But when you look at the actual track record and the policy and procedures, that may not be altogether justifiable."

Of course privacy can be a two-way street. Say you're accused of a crime and you claim you were at home watching TiVo. Can the records at TiVo, if subpoenaed, provide the necessary info to back up your alibi?

"The bad news is no, they could not," Sutherland said. "The good news is [that information] is in your home. It's in your box. They're not going to have to get it from TiVo. They can take it out of your box, and find it themselves."

So when you have TiVo, you're never watching alone. You may be embarrassed now that TiVo noticed you ogling at Janet Jackson, but it also someday could keep you out of jail.

Lawyers will call it the TiVo Defense.