Coming Your Way - New and "Improved" Cable T.V.!!!
After reading Rick's thread on cell phone tracking, I thought I'd share a few little tidbits with all of you.
A little background here: I've known for years that anyone with the right equipment could eavesdrop into your home through your cable television set-up. How? Simple. First, any cable tech guy (and some government employees) can turn on your cable and television set from anywhere on the cable system - from a service van in front of your home to the main computer in the central office. Second, once your T.V. is "hot" - on but with no audio or video - it's easy to reverse the audio and use your television's speaker(s) as a crude microphone, capturing everything that's said within earshot.
Well just yesterday, I was with a client who is a tech supervisor for a MAJOR cable company, and he told me that his and other cable companies are NOW testing equipment designed to "enhance" your viewing pleasure!
How? This new generaton of digital cable converter box will have a mini cam located on its face. The cam will scan the room and, using digtal face recognition capability, will recognize you and suggest programs it determines you will enjoy based on its permanent database of your viewing history.
How convenient!Just another bit of technology to make life easier! I'm SURE that none of your other activities in the room will be observed OR RECORDED using this little set-up, not by the cable companies or the government, that's for sure!
It's not as if the government has REQUIRED other companies to take measures which enable the government to invade our privacy. Just imagine if other industries, such as cell phone providers, were REQUIRED to incorporate technology into cell phones that would allow the government to search records and determine - on a minute to minute basis - everywhere that you and your cell phone have been for the last 10 years. And it's not as if the government wants to have chips installed in cars to record your use of highways "for tax purposes only", right?
Oh, the government HAS DONE THESE THINGS?
And one last thing - my cable tech supervisor buddy has installed a cable "A -B" switch before every piece of equipment in his home - televisions, computers, etc. - that are connected to the cable system. He "caps" the "B" side to prevent cable "leakage" and switches from "A" to "B" when he's not using the device. This simple switch easily disconnects and reconnects a T.V. or computer from the cable system. He suggested that I do the same, and I thought you all may want to consider doing the same.
For those of you who believe that this is a bit paranoid, all I can say is that I was against 911-GPS capability when it first came out for cell phones, because I didn't want anyone to have the ability to know where I was and had been at all times. When I argued this point years ago, some folks told me that would never happen and that I was paranoid. Guess what - my "wild fears" proved to be correct, and I suspect that my "wild fears" about about the forthcoming cable television improvements will be proven correct in the future.
George Orwell's predictions may be arriving a few decades late, but they're proving to be frighteningly accurate.
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Originally Posted by Rick
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