@Barcard: And as to the aforementioned Subscriber Privacy Notice:

The types of persons to whom information about you may be disclosed by Operator in the course of providing cable service to you include the employees of Operator and its related legal entities, agents, repair and installation subcontractors, sales representatives, accountants, billing and collection services and credit reporting agencies, consumer and market research firms, and authorized representatives of governmental bodies. Also upon reasonable request, personally identifiable information is disclosed to persons or entities with an equity interest in legal entities related to Operator when they have a legal right to inspect our books and records.

In addition, if you are an ISP Service subscriber, information, including personally identifiable information, may be shared between Operator and your ISP in providing the ISP Service. The types of persons to whom information about you may be disclosed in the course of providing an ISP Service to you may include, in addition to those persons listed above, your ISP and its employees or other entities who provide content and/or services to the ISP Service or to you via the ISP Service.

Information for billing purposes is generally provided by Operator on a monthly basis. Information for other purposes is provided by Operator as it is needed.

Unless you object, the Cable Act also permits Cable Operators to disclose personally identifiable information to others, such as advertisers and direct mail or telemarketers, for non-cable related purposes. Under the Cable Act, any disclosures for purposes other than as described in the first three paragraphs of this Section 2 and in Section 3 of this Notice is limited to the following "mailing list information": your name, address and the particular services to which you subscribe (e.g., HBO or other premium channels or tiers of service). In addition, Operator may add to its mailing list publicly available information about subscribers that is obtained from third parties. Mailing list information cannot include the extent of your viewing or use of a particular service, including the extent of your use of any ISP Service, or the nature of any transaction you make over the cable system. Operator may disclose such mailing list information from time to time. If you wish to have us remove you from our mailing list, please notify us in writing at the main office of your local Operator.

omg-ponies

@Barcard: Yes, Time Warner may sell your data. Here's the language:

(a) My privacy interests, including my ability to limit disclosure of certain information to third parties, are addressed by, among other laws, the Federal Communications Act of 1934, as amended, and the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. Personally identifiable information that may be collected, used or disclosed in accordance with applicable laws is described in the Subscriber Privacy Notice delivered to me by TWC on its own behalf and on behalf of its Affiliated ISPs. I acknowledge receipt of the Subscriber Privacy Notice, which is deemed to form a part of this Agreement, and expressly consent to the collection, use and disclosure of personally identifiable and other information as described in the Subscriber Privacy Notice, as it may be amended from time to time.

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(b) I agree that, in addition to actions and disclosures specifically authorized by law or statute or authorized elsewhere in this Agreement, TWC and its Affiliated ISPs shall each have the right (except where prohibited by law notwithstanding my consent), but not the obligation, to disclose any information to protect their respective rights, property and/or operations, or where circumstances suggest that individual or public safety is in peril. I consent to such actions or disclosures.

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(c) If I am a Digital Phone customer, I consent to TWC's disclosure of my name, address and/or telephone number to the general public in connection with Caller ID functions, telephone directories, and 411 and 911 Services. I also consent to TWC's disclosure of personally identifiable information to the telephone companies serving those end users to whom I make calls so that the calls can be completed. If I wish to have TWC remove this information from one or more of these Services, I understand that I may notify TWC to do so, subject to any applicable fees.

omg-ponies

It's scary, but at least it's voluntary and they let you know about it (so far). Does anyone know whether Time Warner Cable is doing the same thing with their DVR's? With or without informing their customers? Be nice to have this info about TWC's TV cable and their phone service.

Barcard

I agree with MAKO here. As long as my name/contact info remains anonymous, I don't mind. I don't want to be contacted by marketers though.

I like the idea of advertisers and, more importantly, the television programming industry, knowing what I like and watch. Maybe more of the shows I like won't get canceled and I won't have to sit through commercials that for crap I will NEVER buy. Of course, I skip commercials anyway.

Shrike

Thats fine with me as long as they dont divulge my name. =) Where do I volunteer? If I can influence content providers to make better shows and even commercials, its worth it. =)

Mako

With this and the AT&T wiretapping entry, we need a new tin-foil hat blog.

FThorn

What a brave new world we live in when young Americans have such a wide variety of services to choose from whereby they opt into huge marketing collection programs.

Between this, MySpace, Facebook, and even the iPhone, it seems you can't swing a dead cat (tastefully branded) without finding a hot new service or product that also involves selling the minutiae of usage data to advertisers.

omg-ponies

They should offer a special discounted rate to users who are willing to share their data.
If Tivo is going to make millions exploiting their users the users should at least get something back.

pete

What a little bastard that thing with antennae is.

From now on, on demographic questions, I'm a wheel-chair bound Inuit Lesbian who makes over 500K a year.

dougvox

What's the big deal? I'd be fine with this policy even if it wasn't opt-in. Your other information that's available for marketers is probably a lot more revealing than TV preferences.

Rusdude

Old school: "Tivo records shows."

New school: "Tivo shows records."

ideaman2020

In Soviet Russia, shows record you

omg-ponies

I personally welcome this. I sure that many gizmodians watch the some of the same shows that I watch. Now how come it seems like all out favorite shows get canceled? Cause of the damn Nielson Ratings. Fox is the biggest perpetrator, I mean they canceled Arrested Development, probably one of the smartest, funniest shows on prime time ever. Also the morons canceled Family guy, then brought it back, you know why? cause Nielson ratings don't work. Hopefully this new "Market Research" will benefit us the viewer.

xxenclavexx

TiVo's always had a very strong privacy policy, and a number of years ago it was audited, and shows to the extent to which they strip off identifying info (all done by computers).

But honestly, this is the sort of thing I'd probably opt-in for. If we could easily thumbs-down that crappy ad shown for the 10th time this program... or bypass those irritating ADS THAT SCREAM IN YOUR FACE.

(And yes, I'm angry they cancelled some of my favorite shows, or some network air shows at wierd schedules that practically say "TiVo Required For Viewing").

Worf

I frequently make up demographic data when forced to fill out surveys as a consumer. I especially always low-ball any income questions to the lowest value range given but also often check other for ethnicity (especially when they give you like 12 options) and other for gender and occupation. In my mind consumers should sabotage attempts at aggregating personal information for marketing purposes when at all possible.

Vagabum