[Infowarrior] - Privacy: Comcast DVR Cameras to Start Watching You?

[Richard Forno]

Comcast Cameras to Start Watching You?

http://newteevee.com/2008/03/18/comcast-cameras-to-start-watching-you/

If you have some tinfoil handy, now might be a good time to fashion a hat.
At the Digital Living Room conference today, Gerard Kunkel, Comcast¹s senior
VP of user experience, told me the cable company is experimenting with
different camera technologies built into devices so it can know who¹s in
your living room.

The idea being that if you turn on your cable box, it recognizes you and
pulls up shows already in your profile or makes recommendations. If parents
are watching TV with their children, for example, parental controls could
appear to block certain content from appearing on the screen. Kunkel also
said this type of monitoring is the ³holy grail² because it could help serve
up specifically tailored ads. Yikes.

Kunkel said the system wouldn¹t be based on facial recognition, so there
wouldn¹t be a picture of you on file (we hope). Instead, it would
distinguish between different members of your household by recognizing body
forms. He stressed that the system is still in the experimental phase, that
there hasn¹t been consumer testing, and that any rollout ³must add value² to
the viewing experience beyond serving ads.

Perhaps I¹ve seen Enemy of the State too many times, or perhaps I¹m just
naive about the depths to which Comcast currently tracks my every move. I
can¹t trust Comcast with BitTorrent, so why should I trust them with my
must-be-kept-secret, DVR-clogging addiction to Keeping Up with the
Kardashians?

Kunkel also spoke on camera with me about fixing bad Comcast user
experiences, the ongoing BitTorrent battle and VOD. But he mostly towed the
corporate line on these issues (the monitoring your living room came up
after my camera was put away).