The report, which centers on ITV initiatives by Microsoft , AT&T, AOL Time Warner, Cisco Systems, Proctor and Gamble, A.C. Nielsen and others, forecasts an "advertising nirvana" and privacy collapse as ITV becomes "the spy in your home."

"This next generation of mass-market media -- expected to be used by millions of consumers in the next few years -- is deliberately being designed to record the viewing and spending habits of the viewer," the report said.

"Profiles that include one's age, discretionary income, parental status, along with psychographic and demographic data , will be collected, analyzed and made available to marketers, advertisers, programmers and others."

Invasive TV?

Using product literature, Web sites, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings, trade publications and other information from the cable and advertising industries, the report found a common threat to privacy for an ITV audience expected to reach 40 million homes in the U.S. and 600 million homes worldwide by 2005.

"We surveyed the largest technology companies and essentially what we found is that all of the threats to privacy being discussed with the Internet will be found with interactive TV," CDD policy associate Andy Goldman told NewsFactor Network.

"The intent to capture personal information -- every click, every show -- it will all be taken to make a profile and it will basically be the most complete profile you could imagine to date."

"Here, you don't even have to do anything. As soon as you turn on the television, they're watching. It's being done without the user knowing about it."

Industry-Wide Practices

The report, which covers the TiVO, Microsoft Ultimate TV, AOL TV and MBS (from Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.) systems among others, indicates companies are creating "a new TV infrastructure in the U.S. that will engage in unprecedented data collection, along with new -- and potentially deceptive -- marketing practices," according to CDD executive director Jeff Chester.

"They're all in there," Goldman said. "The report is all really in-depth and it really makes it clear this is not specific to one or two companies, but it's common to all the major companies involved in forming this system that has data collection for its bedrock." (continued...)

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