On Monday, TiVo said the exposure of Jackson’s breast during her halftime performance was the most-watched moment to date on its device, which, when combined with the TiVo subscription service, lets viewers pause and “rewind” live television broadcasts, among other features.
TiVo said users had watched the skin-baring incident nearly three times more than any other moment during the Super Bowl broadcast, sparking headlines that dramatically publicized the power of the company’s longstanding data-gathering practices.
“It’s just sort of creepy,” longtime TiVo subscriber Sandra Munozshe wrote in an e-mail to CNET News.com.
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A TiVo spokesman said the company operates well within established privacy standards. For years, TiVo has disclosed its data-gathering practices in user agreements, saying it strips out any information that could be traced back to an individual viewer.
What’s new:
TiVo-related privacy concerns resurfaced this week after Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl flash dance prompted the maker of the digital video recorder to show off that it can tell what viewers are watching.
Bottom line:
Although TiVo has always disclosed its data-gathering practices, the new wave of complaints may indicate that it still has work to do to convince customers that it’s protecting their interests.
“I can understand people’s concerns,” said spokesman Scott Sutherland. “But when weighted against reality, they are unfounded.”
Privacy issues hitherto associated mainly with PCs are beginning to ripple into the living room with the arrival of new devices, such as digital video recorders (DVRs), that offer interactive features. Once one-way receivers, televisions and even radios are becoming two-way devices capable of sending information back to service providers. The shift promises to fundamentally change the ground rules for media, which increasingly must adhere to new privacy standards to ensure that new technologies aren’t abused in the name of demographics and the like.
The minicontroversy over privacy at TiVo underscores growing consumer awareness over industry practices that have been standard for years on the Internet but are only now beginning to spill out into other media. DVRs, which function like a VCR but record shows on a hard disk instead of on videotape, bring interactive features to TV that promise to transform the industry. Among other things, the devices can recommend shows based on a given user’s past viewing choices, pause live programming and skip commercials.
Since they let consumers jump quickly over ads, DVRs have been in the spotlight as a potential thorn in the side of network TV. But the networks have also been tantalized by the devices’ ability to track viewer behavior, intelligence that could ultimately be used to improve the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and so forth.
