Tim May wrote:
Rest assured, that's just another wildly implausible paranoid rant. The red LED on a VCR or cable box is no more capable of acting as any kind of t.v. camera than doorknobs can act as palmprint scanners. (I
It perhaps has been given superficial credence because some of the television ratings companings (Arbitron, Nielson (sp?). etc.) are toying with the idea of installing "body sensors" in their ratings boxes that would tell them how many people were actually in fron to the t.v. As these ratings families voluntarily agree to be part of the sample, any such system would be voluntary. (And I intend no irony here.)
Monitoring people inside their homes is something not even Denning and Sternlight are arguing for.
I guess I have been too immersed in surveillance theory lately - I'm begining to get a bit paranoid! However, I do sometimes wonder if some of the new technologies (such as "interactive TV") which will be be brought into the homes of the populus could in fact be used for more insidious purposes than was the original intent (I am generously assuming the original intent was as it was presented to the consumer). I mean- what's to stop the government- or perhaps the big capitalists- from utilizing the technologies, such as that suggested by the Neilson people, to monitor citizens *not* part of some voluntary rating program. Are you suggesting that since Denning et al aren't "argueing for it" that it is inconceivable? Hmm.... Julia _________________________________________________________________________ Julie M. Albright Ph.D Student Department of Sociology University of Southern California albright@usc.edu