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Old 05-08-2008, 12:58 PM   #1 (permalink)
Insane
 
cookmo's Avatar
 
Location: Ohio
Comcast video cameras?

So I work as a sales rep for a satellite company, and one of the things that we do for our jobs is to research "other" t.v. service providers. We don't do this to bash them-but to know what they are offering to be knowledgable and try to match or beayt their prices and win over customers.

So I was googling Comcast and came across this story about how Comcast wants to put video cameras in their receivers for market research. That way they can see who's watching t.v. and play adds accordingly. It all seems kind of fubared to me, craziness.

http://newteevee.com/2008/03/18/comc...-watching-you/

Written by Chris Albrecht
Posted Tuesday, March 18, 2008 at 11:42 AM PT

Comcast Cameras to Start Watching You?
If you have some tinfoil handy, now might be a good time to fashion a hat. At the Digital Living Room conference today, Gerard Kunkel, Comcast’s senior VP of user experience, told me the cable company is experimenting with different camera technologies built into devices so it can know who’s in your living room.

The idea being that if you turn on your cable box, it recognizes you and pulls up shows already in your profile or makes recommendations. If parents are watching TV with their children, for example, parental controls could appear to block certain content from appearing on the screen. Kunkel also said this type of monitoring is the “holy grail” because it could help serve up specifically tailored ads. Yikes.


Kunkel said the system wouldn’t be based on facial recognition, so there wouldn’t be a picture of you on file (we hope). Instead, it would distinguish between different members of your household by recognizing body forms. He stressed that the system is still in the experimental phase, that there hasn’t been consumer testing, and that any rollout “must add value” to the viewing experience beyond serving ads.

Perhaps I’ve seen Enemy of the State too many times, or perhaps I’m just naive about the depths to which Comcast currently tracks my every move. I can’t trust Comcast with BitTorrent, so why should I trust them with my must-be-kept-secret, DVR-clogging addiction to Keeping Up with the Kardashians?

Kunkel also spoke on camera with me about fixing bad Comcast user experiences, the ongoing BitTorrent battle and VOD. But he mostly towed the corporate line on these issues (the monitoring your living room came up after my camera was put away).
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Old 05-08-2008, 01:30 PM   #2 (permalink)
We work alone
 
LoganSnake's Avatar
 
Location: Cake Town
Any networked camera can be accessed by those who want to access it. If I had no choice but to get a receiver with a camera in it, I'd tape it over.
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Old 05-09-2008, 06:51 AM   #3 (permalink)
has a plan
 
Hain's Avatar
 
Location: middle of Whywouldanyonebethere
Two books: 1984 and Fahrenheit 451


//laughs// And for the record, tin foil is the worst thing one can wear when one is paranoid.
Why?   click to show 
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Old 05-10-2008, 07:17 AM   #4 (permalink)
let me be clear
 
ottopilot's Avatar
 
Location: Waddy Peytona
Quote:
Originally Posted by Augi
Two books: 1984 and Fahrenheit 451


//laughs// And for the record, tin foil is the worst thing one can wear when one is paranoid.
Why?   click to show 
Did you know that a CRT based TV can receive images? Clandestin technologies have allowed motivated organizations to spy on people for some time now using their TV's as a CCTV device. Just have a van outside with the right RF DSP gear, and smile, you're on candid camera!

If you are using a "digital" cable box now, where the programing and on-demand features are manged by digital data transfer for viewing the analog source, they are perfectly able to monitor your viewing habits now. There may be some FCC issues or ethics that prevent them to legally collect and use this information. If your TV is only using the base 128-129 analog channels bypassing the box, you're "somewhat safe" from this data transfer technology.

Here's another freaky invasion/hacking phenom ... you can hack into devices with network interfaces or modem circuits using HAM radio frequencies and a DSP (digital signal processor) whether it's connected to a network or NOT! A device can be totally freestanding without external connectivity. It's a form of subversion-hack.

Don't even think about cordless phones, wireless keyboard/mouse, WiFi (anything), Bluetooth and cell phone privacy. We have no electronic privacy.

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Last edited by ottopilot; 05-10-2008 at 07:44 AM..
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