I just had a scary thought. Does anyone know if modern cable boxes track viewing patterns and report the data back to the company? I see no reason it shouldn’t be technically feasible, and the marketing value would provide an incentive for the makers and cable companies to do it. But I would consider it a violation of my privacy.
(I’m talking about standard set-top cable boxes, not Nielsen’s or other ratings companies’ devices designed for this purpose.)
Are there any legal restrictions that would prevent them from doing this?
Two-way boxes, like those commonly used for digital cable, have a built-in cable modem that allows them to communicate with the cable operator. This allows you to order PPV movies and to access the electronic program guide. Most of the older analog cable boxes are receive-only.
With two-way boxes, the cable operator has the technical capability of asking it what channel it is tuned to. The problem is that even if the box is tuned to channel 42, that doesn’t mean that anyone is watching the TV. Plus, in many mixed analog-digital systems, the viewer may be watching an analog channel on a cable-ready TV, without using the cable box.
As long as they don’t correlate viewing habits with the identities of the viewers, it’s perfectly legal. TiVo has been doing it for years, and I wouldn’t be surprised if at least some cable boxes do it as well.
Why would it be illegal if they did correlate viewing habits with identities, friedo?
TiVo’s User Agreement essentially states that it won’t correlate this information without your consent, commasense. Of course, the fact that the information is collected at all means it is available to the government or a party in litigation through search warrant or subpoena.