TiVo watchers uneasy after post-Super Bowl reports

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TiVo watchers uneasy after post-Super Bowl reports

After the news from a few days ago, and comments from TiVo owners here, it probably comes as no surprise that TiVo watchers are feeling uneasy after post-Super Bowl reports.

It's definitely a little unsettling that TiVo knows when and where every single user hit their remote. I don't feel violated by it though, TiVo has taken every opportunity to defend user privacy and only reveal data in aggregate. Plus, to be honest I think the data is really interesting and cool, and so far is worth the slight worry.

Still, after the past few years of Supermarket card privacy violations mandated by the courts, it doesn't seem too far off to think that someday a court might request a TiVo user's entire history to prove they had a motive in a crime, and then this could be a major problem for its customers.

by Matt Haughey February 6, 2004 in News

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Except TiVo does not have the data to give the courts. Dave Platt, a TiVo engineer, discussed this in detail recently on alt.video.ptv.tivo. This is why they anonymize the data on the box *before* it is uploaded. Dave also said the logs go to a different box than the other connections, and the box accepting the logs has had all connection logging disabled at *compile* time. So TiVo goes out of their way to make sure they can't link data to a user. So even if they are ordered to turn over the data they can rightfully say they do not have the data to turn over. And your box flushes the logs after every connection, so even if they kick down your door and take your unit they can only see what you've done since the last call home.

Posted by: MegaZone at Feb 6, 2004 1:12:27 PM

TiVo watchers uneasy after post-Super Bowl reports

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