acroyear | Tivo Users Take Heed

Take this as a warning. Your viewing habits ARE being watched. You should go ahead and assume that the history of what shows you tivo and how often you watch them are already being catalogued and sold to advertisers and nielson-types.

All it takes is for some extension to the Patriot 2 act to turn Tivo into a "financial institution" and the feds could look at your viewing habits. At any rate, if the feds or the courts accurately assume they exist they can be subpoenaed for just about anything. Get accused of child porn or child abuse? they can subpoena your tivo records to see if, for example, you've been replaying baby diaper commercials or the like. Get accused of stalking, and they can look at your viewing records for a history of scinemax softporn. Such facts WILL come out and be public record, even if you aren't even charged; they'll be part of the grand jury testimony.

Two-way digital systems to corporations with a potentially "flexible" privacy policy are generally not to be trusted.