China Posted September 4, 2013 Share Posted September 4, 2013 Verizon's Creepy Idea to Spy on TV Viewers A couple snuggling in front of the TV could end up getting bombarded by commercials for romantic vacations, flowers or even condoms and birth control pills. That creepy invasion-of-privacy scenario comes from a Verizon patent idea that envisions spying on TV viewers for the sake of serving up related ads. Verizon aims to track the behavior of TV watchers as they sing happy songs, play with a pet dog, or enjoy some supposedly private time with a loved one on the couch. The tracking system would then search terms related to the behaviors it sees — such as "cuddling" or "romance" — and present viewers with TV ads related to that topic during commercial breaks, according to the patent filing first discovered by FierceCable. The romance scenario is just one example detailed in the patent filing. But Verizon also describes the capability to detect a person's mood from whether he or she is singing or humming a "happy" song, so that it can select ads geared for happy people. Similar patent filing examples include fighting, wrestling, playing a game or somehow competing with another person. The system could also identify objects such as pets, soft drink cans or a bag of chips in a person's hand, and room decorations or furniture. The patent filing even suggests the tracking system communicating with whatever smartphone or tablet a TV viewer might happen to have in his or her hands. That would allow Verizon to sneak a look at the websites a person is browsing, read email drafts or see what e-book he or she isreading. [Spy App Can Turn Smartphones Against You] Such a patent idea would turn TV set-top boxes into spy boxes with sensors for both seeing and hearing the activity in front of the TV. Many TV viewers already own such set-top boxes to access pay-per-view services, digital video recordings and Internet streaming. Click on the link for the full article Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoCalMike Posted September 4, 2013 Share Posted September 4, 2013 Would folks be able to opt out? I mean wow, advertising is pretty far reaching already. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PokerPacker Posted September 4, 2013 Share Posted September 4, 2013 Is nothing sacred anymore? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Posted September 4, 2013 Share Posted September 4, 2013 Sure glad the privacy invasion industry got congress to pass that law that says that corporations are allowed to spy n their customers as much as they want, and do anything they want once they get it, as long as there's a document (which they don't have to show you unless you ask), which doesn't explicitly say that they can't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Destino Posted September 4, 2013 Share Posted September 4, 2013 Things like this convince me that a great many sociopaths are thriving in corporate America. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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