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CNN Saturday Morning News
Will Interactive TV Allow Invasion of Privacy?
Aired June 30, 2001 - 08:38 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: At issue this morning, the potential promise and peril of interactive television. The long hyped idea of two way TV still looms on the horizon. And while we wait for the technology to come to fruition, many are expressing concerns about privacy. Just how much personal information will go up the pipeline, so to speak?
Joining us to consider this issue is Ben Isaacson, executive director for the Association of -- excuse me, the Association for Interactive Media in New York, and from Washington, Jeff Chester, who heads the Center for Digital Democracy. Jeff, let's begin with you. First of all, we've been talking about interactive TV for an awful long time. Is it here yet?
JEFF CHESTER, CENTER FOR DIGITAL DEMOCRACY: Yes, it is here and within the next five or 10 years, the majority of people who receive television will be doing it with interactivital -- interact -- with interactivity. The very basic set top box is now in the homes of millions of people that bring you digital cable, are now capable of collecting information and sending direct marketing and advertising and programming down to you.
So this really is happening now and that's why it's time to sound the alarm, to say at the heart of the television, particularly cable television plans for interactive television is to collect tremendous amounts of data, the same privacy problems we've had with the Internet are now being purposely migrated over to the television set. Your publication this week, the cover story in "Time" magazine, I think, details very well just some of the threats to privacy from the online interactive medium.
We don't want to repeat these problems with interactive television.
O'BRIEN: Ben, how concerned should we be about all this?
BEN ISAACSON, ASSOCIATION FOR INTERACTIVE AMERICA: I don't think viewers need to be concerned at all. There was an existing law passed in 1984 that prohibits any information collected over a cable system from being shared with advertisers or other third parties.
CHESTER: Well, let me say first place that that law, it's very from the cable television industry's plans, and I hope that your viewers will go online and read our report, it's very clear from the cable and satellite television industry's plans that they really had no intention of following that law.
At the very heart of the plans for the future of television is this massive amount of data collection, every program you watch, every ad that you view, whether you click it off halfway through, the things that you order through the television set or even the Web sites you eventually will go to is going to be collected. The industry will create these profiles. They're going to be developing cyclographic and demographic analysis of you, sharing that information with advertisers and marketers and coming back to you.
And the cable industry, as the association represented here knows very well, is now trying to lobby to weaken the '84 act, and the '84 act already has significant loopholes.
O'BRIEN: Well, Jeff...
CHESTER: That's why it's time for Congress to step in now and create a simple privacy policy that will protect everyone. Viewers and users should control their information, not the big media and advertising companies.
O'BRIEN: Ben, what's the matter with just allowing viewers to essentially shut off that information, that flow of information back if they prefer not to share it?
ISAACSON: Right, Miles, the main problem with television as it stands today is that the programmers do not know if people are watching the programs. So what's simply going to happen in the near term is that they're going to collect anonymous information, not specifically what you as an individual are watching, but rather as an anonymous group of individuals so that...
CHESTER: That's not true. Wait a minute...
ISAACSON: ... they can simply determine whether or not people are watching programs, whether or not people are watching the ads and then in the future users will have the option to create personalized information and get content or advertisements delivered to them based on their own interests.
O'BRIEN: Well, but it sounds like...
CHESTER: What we...
O'BRIEN: Ben, it sounds like a slippery slope there. If you're getting that kind of information, if you have the technology to capture it, certainly advertisers might be enticed to get that information and thus be able to direct very specific advertisements to individuals who might be predisposed for their products.
ISAACSON: Absolutely. And that's why the cable law does still apply. And most importantly, the industry is being very proactive in the ways that they're telling consumers. If you go to any of the Web sites of the interactive TV companies...
CHESTER: No. ISAACSON: ... especially the personal video recorder companies such as TiVo, you will see very clearly what their privacy promises are to the American people and how they would collect information and not share that information with third parties.
O'BRIEN: Jeff?
CHESTER: The cable television satellite industry make it very clear -- read the report -- that they're going to collect personal information and be able to target to the person watching the television set, whether it's a kid or whether it's an adult. The programming and advertising and marketing information, they're going to even know, for example, if you're in the market for a home equity loan. They've made it clear that their goal is to encourage impulse buying individually.
So at the heart of the plans is a tremendous amount of personal information. They may say it's in the aggregate, but, in fact, they're going to know who you are, who's watching and that's why we want Congress to step in right now and impose an opt in policy.
There's no data collection, there's no profiling until the consumer consents and understands how that information may be used. And it's unfortunate that the nation's leading media companies are opposed to this very simple sensible safeguard. They want the default to be opt out so they can collect.
O'BRIEN: All right, Jeff Chester, Ben Isaacson, unfortunately we're going to have to leave it there. I suspect we'll be revisiting the subject in the months ahead. Thank you very much for your time on CNN SATURDAY MORNING this morning.
CHESTER: Thank you, Miles.
ISAACSON: Thank you, Miles.
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