[novemberslady]

They've applied for a patent to protect their ownership of the technology, but haven't deployed it yet?
Bullshit

[rarestia]

Build your own cable box!

Look up “HTPC” and follow any of the myriad options for creating your own. You can get a cable codec box and order an M-card from a majority of cable providers for less than the cost of renting one of their boxes. You can customize your interface, play DVDs/BRDs, and even play video games, home videos, picture slideshows, etc. from the same unit.

People need to start building their own stuff to keep their privacy intact. It’s getting nasty out there.

[Gaffer]

Believing something a politician says, any politician, is an exercise of “willful suspension of disbelief.”

As far as I’m concerned, if they live in DC, they are lower than crap from a snake.

[stockpirate]

A lot of the new TV’s have camera’s built in, so I am sure someone could be watching as we speak.

[Logical me]

Already cameras in most new laptops. Soon they will be able to turn them on when you are on your laptop and without your knowledge. Just guessing.

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

Just a little piece of electric tape can fix that

[sickoflibs]

RE :”While such Big Brother TV monitoring hasn't yet been deployed, Verizon last year filed a patent for monitoring technology that would use infrared cameras and microphones to track and collect consumer behavior in the vicinity of a TV or mobile device. According to the patent application, the technology could detect ambient action, like people eating, exercising, reading, sleeping and more”

A microphone next to TV speakers wont do them much good.

And cameras can be covered up. I disabled mine on my last laptop using controls window.

[DJ Frisat]

Snort. The NSA doesn’t want the competition. All your cable boxes are belong to us...

[1_Rain_Drop]

Actually, this little gadget is fantastic. It monitors what we’re doing. Add the phone surveillance, mail scanning, cameras everywhere, drones and soon there will be no need for police or lawyers. All the judge would have to do is gather all the info from NSA or IRS by pushing one button, and the guilty party is identified. Case closed. Heck we may not even have to show up in court. LOL, no need for Court houses.

[RobertClark]

Another new technology, in the same vein, is a proposal by movie studios and distribution houses to charge for digital viewing based on the number of people in front of the device that is showing the material - ie rent a movie from VUDU or Netflix and be charged per set of eyes as if you were buying tickets at a movie theater. Pay per view providers salivate over this proposal as well.

[metafugitive]

I don't about what may be in cable boxes in the future.But in the present if you have a Comcast Cable box installed, there is a good chance it will come with cockroaches.

Place cockroaches in cable boxes into any search engine, and there will be a lot of hits.

[Resolute Conservative]

And soon the the camera you see will not be the only one. They can embed cameras inside your screen that you cannot see.

[smokingfrog]

[hamboy]

Cable companies don't need camera nor microphone to know what you watch.  They already know what you're watching and what you watched by your cable box IP and MAC address.

[Pearls Before Swine]

It’s an unsettling trend, but nothing that can’t be handled with a bit of masking tape.

The time to worry is when they forbid the tape.

[Sender]

A few years ago I would have dismissed this idea as ridiculous, but now I am sure the advertisers and data miners would love to watch us watch.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

A little piece of PVC electrical tape would solve the problem.

[phockthis]

sfl