We love TiVo, but we’re not terribly pleased that our digital video recorder might rat us out someday:
Under the USA Patriot Act, passed a month after the 9/11 terrorist attack, the feds can force a noncable TV operator to disclose every show you have watched. The government just has to say that the request is related to a terrorism investigation, said Jay Stanley, a technology expert for the American Civil Liberties Union.
This is mainly directed at satellite TV, but we know that TiVo can do this as well. After big television events like the Oscars and the Super Bowl they always release “aggregated” data on what commercials people watched rather than fast-forwarded through, and what moments people paused and rewound.
