All About Tivo Part 3/3 [or Tivo's Privacy Policy]
Oct 09 '00 (Updated Jan 07 '01)
There's nothing free in a post-consumer society except perhaps personal privacy. Evidently the Tivo Corporation has decided to break from its prior admirable privacy policy and become a fine young capitalist corporation at the expense of its subscribers...
It seems that every store that I shop at both online and offline now wishes to know my phone number, my address, my DOB and what my cats like to eat for dinner. Most people are fairly passive about this sort of data collection, after all if the person you are doing business knows you, they can create a better customer experience for you.
This is the good side to personal data collection that is sold by the PR department of companies, and for the most part I agree with them. The dark side of things invariably occurs when the company you do business with, 'partners' with another company and sells your data for a price. The spin in this instance is that you might be interested in the new companies product and they want a chance to offer it to you.
I myself am of the opinion that the loss of my privacy, as well as the capitalization of my personal data, without any monetary profit for me is a 'bad' thing.
[Ed. Note I subscribe to Time Magazine, and use a 'fake' name on my subscription. It is simply amazing to me, based on the mails that arrive for this pseudonym, how many different businesses the fine people at Time-Warner sell this data to. Mortgage companies are another target
of my ire.]
Today however, I wish to be the Paul Revere for another more dare I say evil? approach to this cross-selling of marketing data. Welcome to the world of continuous agreggation of personal data for the purposes of cross-selling. Sounds confusing? Well it works like this - if you or I buy Time Magazine off the newstand with cash this is considered an anonymous purchase.
There is no way to tell whether you might like Ginseng Herbal Remedy, and even more important there is no way to offer you the opportunity to buy Ginseng Herbal Remedy.
Thus, because of this the fine people at Time will offer 50-70% off the newstand price if you become a subscriber (you didn't really believe it was because of the guaranteed revenue did you?). Now that you are no longer an anonymous purchaser, the people at Time can now sell the people at Ginseng Inc your address and they in turn can send you a free packet of tea and possibly sell your data to Big Roy's Auto World.
Now what if throughout your day, everything you bought, looked at, or even thought about buying was gathered for the purpose of marketing more products to you? And what if all this data was not just gathered and kept to one corporation but sold and shared to other corporations 'partnerships' so that they could market their products to you. Sounds good? Well in that case you'll love the Tivo corporations new privacy policy.
As of Oct/9/00 Tivo has made a change to its privacy policy for all users
of the Tivo recorder. This change is still not mentioned in Tivo's privacy
policy on www.tivo.com/care and prior to this message Tivo had always maintained that it did not share/sell its customers data.
In the past, your data viewing habits was collected and analyzed anonymously to suggest programs that you might like watching. It is now collected and sold/shared along with your name, email address, phone number and zip code to the AOL corporation and the DirecTV corporation. Additionally Tivo implies that the list of companies that it might choose to 'partner' with and share this data is not limited to these two corporations. I expect deals with cable companies to be forthcoming.
What this mean is that in a years time or so if you happen to watch the CNN channel on DirecTV (or even through normal cable) your area should expect to recieve in the mail an offer to subscribe for Time Magazine (remember AOL is going to buy Time-Warner). But this is not the end of it,
every Tivo user essentially becomes a Nielsen audience for the AOL-TimeWarner/DirecTV corporation.
Love to watch Dharma on ABC? How about CNNfn and CNN? Well now since Tivo knows - DirecTV and AOL-TimeWarners knows, and as a result ABC and CNN and CNNfn knows, and thereby the Advertizers who market commercials on these companies...they all know about you and what you like to watch.
The problem with all this (beyond the creepy) is that this is your most personal data, not simply your date of birth and name, but an on-going real-time catalogue of your likes and dislikes, your politics, your interests all being gathered from you without compensation to be used be
these media conglomerates.
What you can do about it
Well the most radical solution of course is simply not to become a Tivo customer. However for those of us who are, and have come to love the product, there is a solution. You will need to call Tivo customer
support 1-877-FOR-TIVO and request that Tivo stop collecting any 'anonymous' data on you. Also make sure to request that they send you in writing a confirmation of this request. In theory this will prevent your account data from being 'passed along' to AOL and DirecTV for marketing purposes. Additionally make sure to read the messages sent to you in the 'Messages and Setup' screen, this is Tivo's preferred method of sending you information.
In the larger scheme of things - write your congressman. (Seriously folks)
America is in serious need of personal privacy laws, and this will not take place without serious activism. The people at Tivo are not evil,
however as a corporate entity in search of profits (not necessarily a bad thing), certain lines which should not be crossed can be.
I hardly consider myself a luddite, but it does not take someone who is afraid of technology to recognize that there is something awry with the nature of privacy and the voracious appetite for consumer data by advertizers.
Update: I've recently found that you can get your name/address removed from most mailing lists by writing a letter (paper of course) to the
Direct Marketing Association who will in turn have companies such
as Publishers Clearing House, Jenny Craig, Val Pak etc stop sending you
instant-garbage filler. For more information on this relatively simple
procedure go to http://www.the-dma.org/consumers/consumerassistance.html
It explains how to stop junk mail both online and offline.
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nightfall
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Member: Knight Fall
Location: Totalitarian, Nirvana
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About Me:
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