Good morning, TiVo owners! I have some bad news, but you've no doubt heard about it by now, thanks to the email message partially pasted above. To everyone else: Tivo's email database has been compromised!
According to the TiVo service announcement mailed out yesterday, the breach was thankfully limited to name and email address only. Other personal or sensitive information, TiVo assures us, was not made public. The worst that could happen, according to the email we received from a tipster, is your email account will be soon be visited by three wise men. Sorry, spambots. I often get my religious myths and spam-related vocabulary confused.
So, no passwords or credit card numbers or anything like that—just a slew of annoying spam that you'll no doubt have to block and/or delete for the time being. I like to say "pew pew" when I hit the ol' Mark As Spam button in gmail. It's therapeutic.
The full email is pasted below for your convenience:
TiVo® Service Announcement
Dear TiVo Customer,
Today we were informed by our email service provider that your email address was exposed due to unauthorized access of their system. Our email service provider deploys emails on our behalf to customers who have opted into email-based communications from us.
We were advised by our email service provider that the information that was obtained was limited to first name and/or email addresses only. Your service and any other personally identifiable information were not at risk and remain secure.
Please note, it is possible you may receive spam email messages as a result. We want to urge you to be cautious when opening links or attachments from unknown third parties.
We regret this has taken place and apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. We take your privacy very seriously, and we will continue to work diligently to protect your personal information.
If you have unsubscribed in the past, there is no need to unsubscribe again. Your preferences will remain in place.
Sincerely,
The TiVo Team
Update: It would appear as though any customer of a company doing business with Epsilon, an email service provider, will be receiving a ton of spam in the coming weeks. This includes Disney, TiVo, JPMorgan Chase, Citi and Walgreeens, just to name a few! [Thanks, Michael]