Is Your New HDTV Watching You?

geeve420 said:

Well when we go to upgrade and if this is the only option (becomes standard equipment) The wife and I have decided that we will watch TV naked, picking our noses and flipping the TV off evey so often. May as well give them something to see LOL!!

Geeve

LMAO

Don't want any big brother TV watching me!

Hi there.

It's not the camera -- the other insidious methods of data collection are worse -- for example noting what channels you are watching so YOU can be INDIVIDUALLY targeted by various commercial campaigns (I'm sure we have ENOUGH junk mail and cold callers already) -- the number of double glazing salesmen that seem to be available could probably populate half the planet.

This data can be collected either by a chip in the computer or the cable box or a combination of both.

Even more sneakily -- they could monitor the time you start watching TV -- if this was fairly regular and the data passed into wrong hands it could be an invitation to criminals to say -- these people are likely (not always) to be out so go and "case their joint" and if empty -- well steal something.

I remember reading a case recently where a lot of people were invited to attend a Wedding reception in Scotland. When the guests came back home they ALL found that they had been burgled. !! The guest list had been sold on to "dubious sources".

It's not the Security services I'm worried about - it's sleazy low ranking commercial organisations trying to make a quick buck by passing on this sort of data to ANYBODY who'll pay for it - even low level petty criminals.

In general (ok not 100% true either but reasonably accurate) security services usually DO have the infrastructure and due diligence to handle the data properly and are generally accountable to the laws of the state / country they are operating in.

Cheers
jimbo