Comcast wants to put cameras into everyone's livingroom

[Ackar]

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, Comcast’s senior VP of user experience, told me the cable company is experimenting with different camera technologies built into devices so it can know who’s 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 “holy grail” because it could help serve up specifically tailored ads. Yikes.

Kunkel said the system wouldn’t be based on facial recognition, so there wouldn’t 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 hasn’t been consumer testing, and that any rollout “must add value” to the viewing experience beyond serving ads.

Perhaps I’ve seen Enemy of the State too many times, or perhaps I’m just naive about the depths to which Comcast currently tracks my every move. I can’t 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).

[Hummerlein]

ah what ********. show me shows i want to see my ass. how about make a database of everyone's faces so that we can get 1 step closer to 1984?

suck my **** comcast

[Tivia]

Well this does not concern me from a privacy perspective so much as a I just do not want a camera of any form in my living room.

I have a better idea. If Comcast wants to get more money out of me then they already are, then I suggest offering me a package service that allows me to not have to watch ads. I could care less about advertisements custom tailored to my demographic, I would just plain prefer not to watch them and I would pay for it. If comcast tried to put this service into my living room without my consent, it would either result in a lawsuit or at the very least tape over the lens.

[Nocte]

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 “holy grail” because it could help serve up specifically tailored ads. Yikes.

Orwellian melodrama aside, some implementation of this technology would be frickin' sweet. Advertisers get better targetted messenging AND I don't have to watch Herpes meds, Viagra, KY jelly, or slasher flick trailers while surfing from Spongebob to Blues Clues with my 6 and 4 year olds. I don't know why they don't adopt some kid of filtering based on the "parental locks" in the cable boxes.

[Jhani Vandolay]

Orwellian melodrama aside, some implementation of this technology would be frickin' sweet.

Why does it have to be a camera that "can't see your face" but simply eyeballs everything that goes on in front of the tv, as opposed to say, the option to use a profile based system? Google doesn't have to watch me sit in front of my computer to monitor my usage and provide tailored content.

If comcast tried to put this service into my living room without my consent, it would either result in a lawsuit or at the very least tape over the lens.

I thought all gamers knew what the EULA was.

[Talius]

.

Orwellian melodrama aside, some implementation of this technology would be frickin' sweet. Advertisers get better targetted messenging AND I don't have to watch Herpes meds, Viagra, KY jelly, or slasher flick trailers while surfing from Spongebob to Blues Clues with my 6 and 4 year olds. I don't know why they don't adopt some kid of filtering based on the "parental locks" in the cable boxes.

What makes you think that just by looking at you that they won't decide you need herpes meds, viagra, or KY jelly? My assumption is that you'll see more of these ads, all in all

[Aidden]

.

Orwellian melodrama aside, some implementation of this technology would be frickin' sweet. Advertisers get better targetted messenging AND I don't have to watch Herpes meds, Viagra, KY jelly, or slasher flick trailers while surfing from Spongebob to Blues Clues with my 6 and 4 year olds. I don't know why they don't adopt some kid of filtering based on the "parental locks" in the cable boxes.

I was going to say, you're speaking hypothetically right? I would think you'd be a perfect candidate for all of those things.. Throw in Depends under garments as well!!

:P

[Loreleli]

.

Orwellian melodrama aside, some implementation of this technology would be frickin' sweet. Advertisers get better targetted messenging AND I don't have to watch Herpes meds, Viagra, KY jelly, or slasher flick trailers while surfing from Spongebob to Blues Clues with my 6 and 4 year olds. I don't know why they don't adopt some kid of filtering based on the "parental locks" in the cable boxes.
Only people in Tennessee need these Ads, think fo them ...and the children! /cue Sally Struthers tear

[Scorpiolaw]

I live on my own, this camera would never see a variance in who is watching. Issue solved.

[Nenjin]

Google doesn't have to watch me sit in front of my computer to monitor my usage and provide tailored content.

This.

Jhani pretty much nailed it (as usual). When it's an OPTION you can pick, that says to me "we're balancing consumer needs with advertiser wants".

When it's not something you can opt out of, that says "We're serving you up to advertisers whether you like it or not."

I dunno, targeted advertising seems to be creeping on us like a fungus. If I can avoid it, I will.

[Nocte]

I used to think so too, but I love the fact that if I go to the supermarket and by a case of beer and a carton of smokes, I get dollar off coupons for diapers and Juicy Juice. All just because I use my supermarket savings card. :thumb There is some odd kind of karma going on there.

Jhani did sum up my incoherence rather well (as usual). I wasn't talking about the camera, but "a" technology. Why can't we just "log on" to our cable boxes and have appropriate filters in place? I know there would probablly be huge advertiser pushback on this... of eventually we'd have flash animation ads pop up in front of our shows and really annoying times with no "X CLOSE" boxes on them. :rofl

[Trolo]

Nenjin, using the word fungus suggests to me that you cannot avoid it. Fungus is almost the most badass of the bad. That title goes to bacteria, of course--but they're invisible.

[Qtip4urMamma]

I live on my own, this camera would never see a variance in who is watching. Issue solved.

No, but they would see **** no living man would want to see...

[Dikamin]

**** that, stuff like this drives me crazy.

If they did that i would purposely watch tv naked every day.

[DarthEnderX]

I'd put a piece of tape over the camera.

I don't need the cable company seeing my deviant sexual practices.

[Sollon Darkmoon]

I'd put a piece of tape over the camera.

I don't need the cable company seeing my deviant sexual practices.

Damn you for beating me but would have said masturbation but whatever ;P.

[Nenjin]

Nenjin, using the word fungus suggest to me that you cannot avoid it.

Guess it's my (sub)conscious cynicism showing through.

[Scorpiolaw]

No, but they would see **** no living man would want to see...


What happens in my apartment, stays in my apartment.

[DoonBackfighter]

Could always just put a pic of Goats.ex over the camera (facing the camera of course, to preserve sanity).

[Biggwin]

Could always just put a pic of Goats.ex over the camera (facing the camera of course, to preserve sanity).Ha i was thinking the same thing, but then i thought, what kind of controls would goats.ex bring up?

[DoonBackfighter]

Ha i was thinking the same thing, but then i thought, what kind of controls would goats.ex bring up?

http://shopping.discovery.com/product-65139.shtml

:ontome