Tivo is Spying on You

Yes it’s true, every time your Tivo connects to their system to download the channel guides it in turn uploads your viewing habits back to them. Don’t believe me? Check out their latest press release: Tivo Season Pass Hot 100. Or maybe you remember the Nipplegate saga? “Wardrobe Malfunction” Most Replayed Moment TiVo Has Ever Measured.
Obviously this is some incredibly valuable information. With a sampling size much larger than the Nielsen Media Research, TV networks should be crawling all over Tivo for statistics and data feeds.
My concern is how long will this data be truly private. Take the grocery store club card for example. It was almost a matter of time before the information collected was used for nefarious uses (See: Getting to know all about you – a real story where a man suing a grocery store was threatened with the release of his shopping habits to discredit him). Sooner or later there were be a custody case where one party will use the data collected by Tivo to argue that the other parent is unfit because of the viewing habits in their household.