Loss of Privacy

Here are two reasons why DRM doesn’t work.

PrimeSense is the new winner for the best new product vote idea at CableLabs’ Innovation Showcase.  Their tech allows them to detect how many people are watching TV at any given time.

…the vendor’s tech lets digital devices see a 3-D view of the world. In other words, that cable set-top box will know whether 3 people are sitting on the sofa watching TV and how many are adults vs children. It all happens via a chip that resides in a camera that plugs into the STB. The images look more like something from thermal imaging.

Do we really need television and video services knowing this information?  This technology only services the television and video industries, not the consumer.  It will, undoubtedly, be touted as a resource for determining just how popular a show is.  That way, the television producers can have a more accurate count of how many people really like a show.  However, it will, eventually, be turned into a profit making machine.

Your family will sit down to watch the pay-per-view movie you just ordered.  Suddenly, the television screen will inform you that you have only purchases one pay-per-view ticket to watch the movie, but there are five people sitting in your living room.  Pay for the additional four people or no movie.

If you have a DVR, much of your data is already tracked.  It timestamps when you fast forward or rewind, how often a task is performed, and how often you flipped channels.  PrimeSense is adding another layer of detail about you by being able to see exactly who is doing the flipping and who’s fast forwarding through the commercials.

PrimeSense is marketing their technology for benign uses, such as motion control for exercise or changing the channel on a TV without a remote.  However, it is the future use of spying on customers that has people worried, especially when their cable providers are very interested in the technology.

In Brooklyn, the Bronx, and parts of New Jersey, Cablevision is to being using targeted advertising to their TV customers.  They will do this by using data about its customers based on income, ethnicity, gender, number of children and pets, and whether the customer rents or owns the home.

The technology requires no hardware or installation in a subscriber’s home, so viewers may not realize they are seeing ads different from a neighbor’s. But during the same show, a 50-something male may see an ad for, say, high-end speakers from Best Buy, while his neighbors with children may see one for a Best Buy video game.

How would you like to be sitting through a family viewing of the Super Bowl, only to be shown ads for  viagara, porn, and condoms.  I’m sure you won’t be embarrassed if your neighbor gets to see your commercials for bankruptcy.

Cablevision matches households to demographic data to divide its customers, using the data-collection company Experian.

Experian has data on individuals that it collects through public records, registries and other sources. It matches the name and address of the subscriber to what it knows about them, and assigns demographic characteristics to households. (The match is a blind one: advertisers do not know what name and address they are advertising to, Cablevision executives said.)

But, Experian and Cablevision will.  You cannot blindly send ads to someone’s home without knowing the particular details of that person.  Regardless of the fact that advertisers don’t know this information, others do.  Now, that private information is going to be in two databases; Experian’s and Cablevision’s.  Is this really a good idea?

Cablevision has been testing the system in about 100,000 Brooklyn households over the last year and a half. By summer, Cablevision plans to have it in 500,000 households, and, if the introduction goes smoothly, to extend it to all 3.1 million of its cable subscribers.

If I were a Cablevision subscriber, I’d quit right now.  I don’t want targeted ads.  I don’t want my information placed in even more databases.  Cablevision is after money.  They haven’t explained what they are going to do to keep your information private.  They have merely explained that it is good for you to get beer commercials over tampon commercials and you should be happy with that.  And this is only because it has reached the news.  They have not sent customers an updated privacy policy in nearly a year and have not notified the 100,000 “test” customers that they are even experimenting with this technology to begin with.  They are looking for more cash for their business and, in truth, don’t care about you at all.

While Cablevision is not targeting what a person is watching, Comcast is planning just that.

But a competitor of Visible World, Invidi, is conducting a test with the cable company Comcast and will soon work with Verizon. It uses data from remote controls to follow what a person is watching, then matches that with ratings information and program guides to infer that person’s gender and age. It can use census data or data sources like Experian for further refining. Then, it shows an appropriate commercial.

Eventually, said Michael Kubin, the executive vice president of Invidi, the company will be able to identify who is watching based not just on what they are viewing, but also how they watch it: whether they channel change frequently or not at all, or immediately turn to CNN or to Bravo. That will help it show the right ads in households where multiple people watch television.

With information like this, Comcast should look to lose a few customers.  Why should this invasion of privacy be allowed?  Cable companies already make money off of its customers.  They aren’t satisfied.  They want more money and are willing to sacrifice their own customers’ privacy to do it.

Next month will be my one year anniversary without television.  I was hesitant at first to get rid of TV.  Looking back, I’m extremely happy I did so.