Your TV May be Spying on You

While you’re watching TV, your TV could be watching YOU, but only if you buy a special kind of DVR that not only notes what shows you watch (the way a Tivo does), but actually SPIES on you (NOTE: subscribers can still listen to this show) and records what you are eating and talking about, so it can insert advertisements tailored just for you into the shows you’re watching (who would buy such a thing?)

The device would also be able to detect things like skin color and accents, as well as the types of objects in the room where you watch TV. In the Huffington Post, Katherine Bindley writes: "A couple who is arguing might see an ad for couples therapy on their television or their mobile phone, while a pair who is cuddling could receive an ad for a weekend getaway." Is this the end of privacy–an end that you PURCHASE YOURSELF?

It’s bad enough that we now seem perfectly happy to wear (and pay for) clothes that have the manufacturer’s logos all over them, giving them free mobile advertising. Have we opened our lives to others, through social networks like Facebook and Twitter, to the extent that Verizon (which has filed a patent for this device) thinks they can get us to pay for something like this?

And Verizon isn’t the only one who thinks so– Google has filed a patent for an interactive TV service that could tell how many people are in the room.

Bindley quotes computer blogger Chloe Albanesius as saying, "If I’m chatting with someone about possible vacation spots, go ahead and serve up possible hotels and flights. But if I’m on ice cream sandwich No. 3 for the night, will my TV show me Weight Watchers ads? Or Match.com if I’m home on a Saturday night? Ouch!"

If you’re going to put down good money, spend it on something that wants to inform you (NOTE: subscribers can still listen to this show) and help you, rather than exploit you–and that’s us! And if you subscribe for one year (while supplies last), you’ll receive a FREE uknowncountry.com tote bag!