- News about a Google TV that interprets its viewers’ behavior to recommend shows to them raises questions about how useful such a technology would be, and to whom, not to mention the privacy matters involved. “James McQuivey at Forrester Research said consumers will accept these privacy tradeoffs if they see an advantage to the new style of television. ‘If you ask people, of course they will say no,’ McQuivey told AFP, while noting that millions have accepted this type of tracing by connecting their TVs to Xbox consoles with Kinect motion detection where ‘the camera is tracking you all the time’…But he said companies should be prepared to develop privacy policies to avoid government intervention.”
- Nielsen is also planning to gather consumer data, in this case by following Twitter activity that occurs using the hashtags displayed during TV show broadcasts. “Peter Rice, Chairman and CEO, Fox Networks Group said, ‘Twitter is a powerful messenger and a lot of fun for fans of our shows, providing them with the opportunity to engage, connect and voice their opinions directly to each other and us. Combining the instant feedback of Twitter with Nielsen ratings will benefit us, program producers, and our advertising partners.'”
- Germany may be taking Facebook to court over its policy of banning pseudonyms. “Facebook began cracking down on pseudonym accounts in early 2011, and made a renewed effort to purge such accounts in August 2012. In September, Facebook started encouraging users to report friends who don’t use their real names.” Germany was successful in its earlier effort last year when its “state data protection authority sued Facebook over its facial recognition software that automatically recognized and tagged people in photos uploaded to a user’s profile.”
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