I don't know why this seems to come as a surprise to TiVo subscribers. There's a reason the thing has to be connected to your telephone line to function. TiVo makes recommendations of shows "it" thinks you might want to watch based on your past viewing habits. Did people think that the box was doing that all by itself?
Personally, I think that the convenience of the DVR outweighs the fact that they monitor viewing habits. At the moment, there is no demographic information being monitored. However, it Nielsen has its way, all this could change. At that point, I think people would have a legitimate reason for concern. My mailbox is already stuffed to the brim with junk mail. I don't need TiVo selling my information to Nielsen, who in turn will sell it to one of their customers for marketing purposes.
If Nielsen is successful in signing a more in-depth agreement with TiVo, I'll be adding my name to their "opt-out" list for sure. But for now, it doesn't really bother me that they know that the "Janet Incident" was rewound about 15 times in our household.
Hey, it wasn't ME who was working the remote!
Posted by geekchik at February 9, 2004 11:30 AMI think 15 times is a bit of an exageration. The number of times that we viewed the "mud bag" incident was about 4. Of the viewers in the room, only one was interested enough to find an enhanced view of it on the internet. Hmm, I wonder who that was?????
Posted by: Xan at February 9, 2004 02:18 PMHey, I had to verify the whole pasty/jewelry thing.
At least I didn't save the image in my webspace (*cough* James *cough* *cough*).
Posted by: geekchik at February 9, 2004 03:54 PM