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This spy is as close as your TV

December 5, 2012

Your digital video recorder may soon be watching you in the privacy of your home, recording your reaction to television commercials.

Verizon has filed for a patent on a DVR that is equipped with a camera and recorder. Information gathered by the device would then be sold to advertisers for marketing purposes.

Fox News was reporting early Tuesday that a couple cuddling on the couch might subsequently receive targeted advertisements for mail-order roses and condoms.

According to a trade report on WebProNews, the camera would “spy on you night and day, collect information about your habits, and deliver targeted ads” based on that assimilated information.

The product’s patent filing suggested the camera would also detect objects, such as pets, and even the specific brand of food and other items used around the house. And if it should observe a couple fighting, they could expect to receive customized ads for relationship counseling.

Verizon filed for the patent last April and only now announced it, in accordance with federal regulations. Other providers such as Comcast are reported to be preparing the same technology.


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Big brother, as tried under Bush II, was loudly and rightly decried as unjust, immoral, and a flagrant disregard for the Constitution. Now that the socialists/elitist/progressives have their ideologue in power, doubling down on government trampling of the Constitution and citizens’ rights seems to be A-OK. Funny how that works out like that.


I challenge every one of you who SCREAMED bloody murder when Bush and Congress put in The Patriot Act to ask yourselves (honestly, if you can): How has Obama’s track record been?


…and there you have it.


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r0y: I don’t care who is in the White House, which party is in control of either House of Congress; governmental overreach is just plain wrong and should not be a partisan issue. Many of the militias that sprang up during President Clinton’s terms in office were surprisingly quiet after GW was elected; do you have any memory of that time, and do you think my assertions are off-base? The “problem” with our federal government wanting to gather and sift through as much electronic communication as possible is not related to either party, IMO; this is our “intelligence community” wanting to have as much information as possible under the guise of looking for potential “threats” against our government and/or country. I seem to remember that when it first came out during the first term of President George W. Bush that our intelligence agencies were listening to our phone calls and reading our emails that quite a few conservatives spoke up that “you shouldn’t be worried if you don’t have anything to hide” , but every time there is a Democrat in the White House, all of the sudden we have “jack-booted thugs” ready to take away our rights, confiscate our firearms and threaten to send us off to concentration style “camps”.

Like I said, government overreach in the form of electronic eavesdropping isn’t confined to a particular ideology or any particular political beliefs, it is about so-called “protection” against perceived threats, and it does not matter who is the President or who is in Congress, our intelligence agencies will continue to slip more and more into our personal lives; I really don’t think there is much that can be done to change that.


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Ask a question about Obama and get Bush for an answer.


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Please sign Bruce Gibson and Adam Hill up for these devices.


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I wonder how long it will be before they offer subscriptions to your neighbors homes as a reality show?


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We have no privacy… take a look at wired.com:


“Under construction by contractors with top-secret clearances, the blandly named Utah Data Center is being built for the National Security Agency. A project of immense secrecy, it is the final piece in a complex puzzle assembled over the past decade. Its purpose: to intercept, decipher, analyze, and store vast swaths of the world’s communications as they zap down from satellites and zip through the underground and undersea cables of international, foreign, and domestic networks. The heavily fortified $2 billion center should be up and running in September 2013. Flowing through its servers and routers and stored in near-bottomless databases will be all forms of communication, including the complete contents of private emails, cell phone calls, and Google searches, as well as all sorts of personal data trails—parking receipts, travel itineraries, bookstore purchases, and other digital “pocket litter.” It is, in some measure, the realization of the “total information awareness” program created during the first term of the Bush administration—an effort that was killed by Congress in 2003 after it caused an outcry over its potential for invading Americans’ privacy.”


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Local news udc


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Looks like I am going to have to keep my old devices or find a 20-something to bug the new ones. What an outrageous invasion of privacy!


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RS isn’t one ready for the duct tape just yet, K-nut, but he (she?) definitely needs to put down the coffee.

Big brother will never cede control to anybody or anything, not even the (lord help us) maniacally benevolent robots, who get trapped in a Gene Roddenberry logic problem and must destroy us to save us.

Good luck with all that.


See y’all on the 22nd!!


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Once all the social media, web browsers, cell phones and spying DVR’s start talking to each other, Big Brother will finally be in power and can begin constructing robot droids that actively engage us and offer us personalized products and services, like door-to-door salesmen, except that they can find you anywhere, anytime. After that it’s only a matter of time before Big Brother is passing judgment on us while spying. Then the robot droids will determine the futility of humanity and begin replacing us for our own good. And when we retaliate, they will exterminate us in an effort to preserve us by preserving themselves. Sound like fiction?


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“Sound like fiction?” Actually, you make it sound more like science fiction, IMO. While I can agree with you on the potential for having social media, web browser and cell phone history all being connected, I really don’t see the public embracing such an invasive technology like a DVR with a built in camera. As much as the large corporations want to be able to monitor our every decision as it relates to our buying habits, I am much more concerned about the government’s ability to access all of the information and making “threat assessments” based on our interactions with other people. As far as “robot droids” replacing us for our own good, you need to lay off the Isaac Asimov sci-fi and speak up to our legislators about the dangers of the federal government over-stepping the rights listed in our Constitution and Bill of Rights. I think that anyone who feels the government can be overbearing can find common ground no matter what their political persuasion is.


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Good point, I’ll line-up to take issue with the federal government…right behind you. And then we’ll both be???


Ever hear about the employee who, after using sick leave to visit a far-away dying parent, returned to work to find that they’d been demoted after fellow employees observed “vacation-like” pictures posted to a social media website including images of family members enjoying themselves (for the moment) in a park-like setting? Please understand that this story is NOT fiction. Control technology and social media, etc. or suffer the consequences.


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Randy Shelia

I’ve already been contacted by one of your robot driods. He is a field rep. from U.S. Department of Commerce / Census Bureau, he said if I refused to fill out The American Community Survey I could be put in prison under Tittle 13 US code. I told him to read article 1 section 3 of the contitution, his reply was ” you will be receiving a letter in the mail regarding your case”. SPOOKY


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Stopagenda21: If you do get such a letter, please contact us at CalCoastNews.


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Thank you I will


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The American Community Survey is mandatory.


“It is the largest (and only) data set of its kind and is used across the federal government in formulas that determine how much funding states and communities get for things like education and public health. ”


“Mr. Webster and other critics have gone so far as to say the American Community Survey is unconstitutional. Of course, the basic decennial census is specifically enumerated in the United States Constitution, and courts have ruled that this longer form of the census survey is constitutional as well. ”


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/20/sunday-review/the-debate-over-the-american-community-survey.html


That said, I agree that it is very important for all tea party and GOP members to never ever fill out or be interviewed for the American Community Survey. Please tell you friends.


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What ever happen to the right privacy? Tittle 13 US Code is unconstitutional,read it. Also go to A.C.S website and read the sample survey,


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the basic decennial census is specifically enumerated in the United States Constitution, and courts have ruled that this longer form of the census survey is constitutional as well.

help for the confused


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I love the creativity from contributors ALL. I guess I was responding to recent news of robots being developed with anti-personnel capabilities vs. intercept-only. With somewhat of a technical background, I believe that any (computer) program can eventually be rewritten and pirated, and any radio signal intercepted and commandeered. Think drone aircraft turning against their pilots and security robots ignoring their original protocol. Maybe I’m too high on bean juice (I took liberties by deviating a bit with robot drones). NOW is the time to pressure influential decision-makers who control this technology. Can you image if an offensive drone aircraft created by the US military and complex were to turn against an American city? Consider the lethal potential after personal information is garnered from your TV, etc. I’m shaking in my non-gender-specific shoes.


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Big Brother IS watching.


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Another use for duct tape


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a camera shutter you control


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