Your TV is Watching You!

Once the subject of only the most paranoid of Conspiracy Theorists, their worst nightmares are finally a reality.

It may sound like an old joke from 1980s Comedian Yakov Smirnoff "In Communist Russia people don't watch television, the television watches them!" but it is now happening even in the good ole' U.S. of A.

Comcast got caught a while back putting Digital Cameras in Set Top Boxes (most of which are still in the field) without publicly disclosing their presence. (They did say they were working on the Technology in the "Testing Phase" Comcast Cameras to Start Watching You? but these were found in several Satellite & Cable Set Top Boxes Cable Boxes With Camera Surveillance Systems to Monitor Public in Homes). Even Ron Paul made this practice public on his website.

Since this didn't go over too well in the United States, the Cablecos have gone back to the drawing board to find a better surveillance system that won't offend the general populace as much.

Enter the Israeli company PrimeSense.

Their product lets digital devices see a 3-D view of the world rendered to look like something from thermal imaging. In other words, a cable set-top box will know whether three people are sitting on the sofa watching TV and how many are adults vs. children. It all happens via a chip that resides in a camera that plugs into the Set Top Box as opposed to one integrated into the Set Top Box as Comcast did.

This isn't just Future Tech or Vaporware either. It was demoed to Cablecos at the semi-annual CableLab's Innovation Showcase who have informally voted this as the "Best New Product".

Of course, the Cablecos just want to justify their ability to put Americans under surveillance purely for nothing more nefarious than "Advertising and Ratings". They want to Target individual Advertisements to specific watchers, as well as know when you are going to the fridge or bathroom during commercial breaks. Considering Ted Turner has stated many times that those who don't watch the commercials are "criminals" and "should be put in jail for theft", this has a whole new meaning. Besides, we've already seen how cooperative the Telcos are with allowing our government agencies to spy on American citizens without a warrant or probable cause...I'm sure we can trust the Cablecos to do a better job at ensuring our privacy! (/sarcasm)

Do we need our Televisions watching us? How many times do we have to cry out and say, "This is *NOT* acceptable, under any circumstances" before the Cablecos get the point? And what prevents them from trying to be more sneaky about it if we put our foot down?

It's bad enough that we have to worry about the Alphabet Soup Government Agencies watching us, now we have to worry about Private and Public Corporations watching us too?

Where is my tin-foil hat?

I have been watched and perved into for years. People i know know this is a fact period. Being watched in home is nothing new, but planks who are so ignorant do not st1t about the world we live in.

go to school with murderers and you will pay for rest of your life.

Yeah that is a huge pile of steamy dog #$(*%&. Really just makes me want to vomit all over my keyboard. Where will it end? WHERE!?

[edit on 12-8-2009 by DaMod]

Only a matter of time until they start demanding more fee's because there is more than one person watching it may sound silly now but never underestimate the greed of companys.

I personally wouldn't tolerate the cable box watching me either i'd get rid of it completely or put electric tape over the sensor/camera.

reply to post by fraterormus


I wouldn't put it past some bighead to employ technology like that. It makes me feel better to think that everytime I cuss at the idiotic commercials and fabricated newscasts, I am being heard by someone, somewhere

Hi, fraterormus.

Originally posted by fraterormus
Where is my tin-foil hat?

Don't put it there ! !

Put the tin-foil around the BOX ! ! B-)

Blue skies.

Microsoft perve into plenty of lives, doing research so you may be helping microsoft in more ways than you know.

Microsoft is a company that does all this sort of thing. The film antitrust is very realistic to the lengths they goto.

There are more ways to kill competitors than a baseball bat.

De-man machine see beams

There was actually a TV docu about this a long time ago.I understood then that the video was a hoax, but i'll have to find the programme again.

These techs are even used on the agencies within the agency.When the agents found out they weren't too happy about it. So I heard from an old man. I've thought of a couple ways to counter this 1. some type of cover for you t.v./comp. screen transparency for us but not for the other side 2.the other would be some type of smoke and mirrors type of illusion.3rd would require a wireless keyboard and a video camera carrying the image to a projector on to a wall. You would have to position everything correctly.
This idea is a lil off topic but when you speed through a red light and the camera takes a picture i thought couldn't you make some type of plastic cover that would disrupt the image but if you figure it out don't patent it or they'll make it illegal just make a few for you and your friends. These are just ideas that need to be worked on I'm not an engineer and i don't have the sure proof solution for everything.

they want to crush my human rights?i will remove the camera chip myself and do some wireing for free cable hack,lets see if they want to mess with the smart audiance

Being from the UK and living in a city people watching you constantly is nothing new. I have heard about these systems already, basically a profile is built using keywords and phrases and your then your targeted with relevant advertising. It don't really bother me, i have no TV, not planning on getting one either.

Who ever thought up the name "Idiot Box" was more correct than they probably ever realised imo.

Wow !! Very disturbing indeed.

I'd never heard of this and appreciate you bringing to my attention. Guess it's time to turn the cable box around backwards. I hardly watch TV anymore so maybe I should just send it back.

They charge me $8 a month for the box anyway. It's going back, Just in case.

I'd hate to think someone is watching what we do in the living room,lol.

[edit on 16-8-2009 by Strictsum]

reply to post by fraterormus


I can just see people now all over the world dismanteling their digital boxes to check if there is anything unusual in there.....

S+F

count me in as one of them when i get home... better to be safe than sorry...perhaps if there is a camera ill give "them" a show.....im thinkin putting 2 girls 1 cup infront of it...as a message to them to "eat sh!t" hahaha >_

this is laughable...sorry to say but this seems like an april fools joke....
how many people are going to be needed to watch over every single home in the usa? lets say 1 person can view 100 homes ...care to do the maths? And what exactly are they going to look for?... home made amateur porn movies????
Not to mention how are they going to use the evidence in court.....

[edit on 17-8-2009 by loner007]

Total b.s., this is totally completely false. How do I know ? Because I work in the biz and the tech isnt there nor is the bandwidth and if it were we'd be charging somebody for it.
Is it possible yes but why and how could we match the tv to the buyer who walks in Wal-Mart and buys a t.v.?
Has there been field tests I cant answer but I doubt it, the catv industry is a privately owned biz (for now) and we charge for every little bit of bandwidth we use. It is a for profit biz not a spy industry and the people I know in the biz wouldnt stand for it for one second,relax it isnt happening and if I find out it is I'll be the first to tell and quit.

and imagine when they put "smell" into the tv's
aahh!

Originally posted by TruthxIsxInxThexMist
reply to post by fraterormus

 

I can just see people now all over the world dismanteling their digital boxes to check if there is anything unusual in there.....

S+F

While they're at it, why not do the same for their pc monitors?
Why buy the milk, when you can have the cow

Originally posted by Eden

Originally posted by TruthxIsxInxThexMist
reply to post by fraterormus

 

I can just see people now all over the world dismanteling their digital boxes to check if there is anything unusual in there.....

S+F

While they're at it, why not do the same for their pc monitors?

Why buy the milk, when you can have the cow

I've got an old PC Monitor so there's no chance of one being in it