Is our cable company spying on us?
April 4, 2008 7:31 PM Subscribe
Is Cox cable spying on us? My husband was mesmerized one morning by the miracle manna preacher on our Cox cable. The next day, there was a pre-recorded voice mail on our phone from Mr Miracle Manna himself telling us to press 1 now if we wanted our own miracle manna. This seems to be too much of a coincidence. Does Cox have a way of tracking what we watch and then informing their advertisers?
Do you use a cable box / DVR / TiVO?
I'm pretty certain the answer is "No" either way. But if you answered "Yes," the answer is "It's technically possible." They could build some code in, I suppose, to transmit (as with cable modems) your currently-tuned TV station back over the line.
If you don't have a cable box / etc. provided by them, it's literally impossible. It's a receive-only medium that way.
posted by fogster at 7:51 PM on April 4, 2008
I'm pretty certain the answer is "No" either way. But if you answered "Yes," the answer is "It's technically possible." They could build some code in, I suppose, to transmit (as with cable modems) your currently-tuned TV station back over the line.
If you don't have a cable box / etc. provided by them, it's literally impossible. It's a receive-only medium that way.
posted by fogster at 7:51 PM on April 4, 2008
Probably not. It's possible to do with modern digital cable systems, but it's kinda shady and probably not worth it for either Cox or the advertisers. Furthermore, they couldn't tell if you liked the ad or even saw it - just to what channel the box was tuned. My bets are on it being coincidental.
posted by wsp at 7:58 PM on April 4, 2008
posted by wsp at 7:58 PM on April 4, 2008
Also, I'm not sure if Cox would be allowed to give out your phone number to advertisers, but I guess that depends on their privacy policy.
posted by wsp at 8:02 PM on April 4, 2008
posted by wsp at 8:02 PM on April 4, 2008
I doubt it. We got that same creepy Miracle Mana recording the other day, and we didn't watch any church shows.. we don't even use Cox Cable.
posted by Sufi at 9:20 PM on April 4, 2008
posted by Sufi at 9:20 PM on April 4, 2008
Response by poster: We don't have a DVR or TIVO so maybe it was a coincidence. But I will say I found the miracle manna recording creepy and bizarre - almost like the rantings of someone who was mentally ill.
posted by TorontoSandy at 9:49 PM on April 4, 2008
posted by TorontoSandy at 9:49 PM on April 4, 2008
Best answer: I work for a company owned by Cox and Comcast in a very related field. They could (and are going to be) tracking your viewing data and begin personalizing some of the ads you see on TV - targetted advertising - maybe even powered by Google. You're going to start seeing enhanced ads and tv "applets" that would allow you to opt in to this kind of thing.
However the cable nets are extremely anal about not releasing personally identifiable information to advertisers w/o you opting in (and if the lawyers have their way - double opt in). This is FCC regulated and I guarantee you that this did not happen as you're imagining it.
posted by bitdamaged at 10:37 PM on April 4, 2008
However the cable nets are extremely anal about not releasing personally identifiable information to advertisers w/o you opting in (and if the lawyers have their way - double opt in). This is FCC regulated and I guarantee you that this did not happen as you're imagining it.
posted by bitdamaged at 10:37 PM on April 4, 2008
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by ludwig_van at 7:50 PM on April 4, 2008