Disturbing Trends (1 Viewer)

[Mary M S]

Invasive covert activities by providers of AV products.
AHL seems the place for this topic since practices I’m referring to are increasing and concern cross-categories in the industry...so Mods I hope will let me know if this is the place?

Older news:
Sony and the rootkit
And threads in HTF like this
And one I posted about this news story which caught my eye.

Newer news:
I had noticed for years that D* and the standalone B&M sellers of their products lie regularly.

I like to own, not rent. So paid extra for unsubsidized STB’s so as to not have to ‘reset’ my contract with D* when upgrading. First years I had to argue with D* reps on the phone and transfer to supervisors to get them to flick the switch on my new box (I had paid full retail; unsubsidized) without resetting my contract for a yr.
Next trend was that the B&M started assuring me that the store receipt which clearly stated I was resetting my contract with D* was not “true” ...didn’t mean a thing, and my contract would not be reset with purchase & activation. I actually returned a unit without ever leaving the store with the product the first time this ‘type” receipt popped up on me. I left and found a store who did not include the "requirement" and repurchased. The product was the same 'price' at both storefronts.
Even though the receipt CLEARLY states, to activate your new purchase you will be resetting contract, at future shopping trips pre-purchase when I inquired if their receipt had this disclaimer, I was lied to by employees. I could tell a very few were clueless but most knew: eyes flickered and the empolyess got very uncomfortable when I stated we can call D* and get this answered they then admited I was correct, my contract would be reset.
What got me was that all swore in the beginning of these conversations with straight faces multiple times that the ‘contract’ on the receipt did not mean a thing. Many used the ‘I promise' word swearing the receipt disclaimer would not really reset my D* contract. It was so consistent I meant to start a ‘hidden camera’ expose and turn this into the appropriate authorities.
Lazy me ...I did not. (and is apathic behavior what manuf & providers are counting on?)
Currently....it appears it is pretty much impossible to buy an STB from any B&M or D* without resetting your contract.

D* Customer S reps have lied to me over yrs stating that my STB’s required a phoneline or they “would not work at all”. (mine don’t require phone hookup) Since blatant misrepresentations is not always working for D* due to word of mouth & the net I can only assume that is why the co. decided to start building phone lines in as required.

Nice to see some Attorney G will be looking into this, at least in
one state,

and the current developments in this story.
How do these sorts of actions make other enthusiasts feel? Is it affecting your purchases or choices? It has impacted mine for a while now, but I foresee being locked out of any ‘choice’ in the near future and more bundling of hardware/software which invades privacy.

Which has made me contemplate recently:
What is life like if I break my ‘habit’ of heavy AV????? (how much more would I get done, and see of the great outdoors?) ..sad attitude I’m having with HD optical just now coming out

 

[Jesse Skeen]

What's D*?

 

[Kyle McKnight]

I'm assuming DirectStar sattelite TV?

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

If doing your own hidden camera expose is too time consuming, see if you can interest the local news station in the idea:

http://www.local6.com/problemsolvers...22/detail.html

Regards,

Joe

 

[DougR]

DirectTV

 

[Steve Schaffer]

Tivo states in their owner's manuals that they keep track of what users watch and record. This data is collected when the machines "phone home" for guide data updates and such. They make the data available to broadcasters but claim that the user's names and addresses and such are not provided, so nobody knows who's watching what, just how many users are watching what.

I'm on my second Tivo, an HR10-250 Hd model and hope that some broadcast bigwig is taking note of the fact that I almost always watch only HD stuff.

 

[Zen Butler]

The sideways hat thing....oh and "No-Show" socks are pretty lame too.

 

[Mary M S]

Zen....you but...........

I could keep adding to this list starting to dot the path I foresee the studios and AV manuf. and BroadC P are taking us down; what with CopyP schemes, data mining and attempts to generate 'life of product' fees. I [am- stamps foot] worried what its going to bring on ...in our future.

check this
link and a little more technical version here. The more they try to connect to us the more vulnerable they themselves become.

Part of my moms hard drive was just fried virus/Trojans/hacker the IT guy at her office salvaged part of it. I can see millions of gamers in the future or the first 'hacked' heavily sold display or source hardware being taken out one night while we sleep. And a great cry from Consumers across the land will go out: specially if it comes to us via a 'data mining' security flaw.

In the second link do you see the recommendation? the quote from the Johns Hopkins/RSA study no less!
“Car owners wrap their keyless ignition fobs in tin foil when not in use to prevent active scanning attacks” I spit my coffee out when reading.


..it won’t be sideways hats on our AV gear in future, but little hersey kisses tinfoil ones!