Surveillance state.

It's absolutely an invasion of privacy...especially if you can't turn it off. I'm guessing its one of those smart TVs that have to be hooked to the internet.

What's to say your cable or satellite provider isn't already doing the same?
Hell, AT&T knows my physical location 24/7/365 if they can GPS coordinate my iPhone...and that ain't hard.

Good lord, think about what somebody could gather from Facebook about who you are, what you do, etc.

It's scary.

Who knows what else about your habits get shared around the World...but it's more than we all think. I'll bet the majority of it is used for marketing things to you that you are more predespitioned to buy.

I have an annual contract with a data aggregator that gives me statistics on vehicle registrations, by zip code, for every county we do business in across the US. I use it to get an idea of what tires and tire sizes we are more apt to sell in a market. The makeup of vehicle popularity is different in Jefferson County Kentucky than it is in Mingo County West Virginia, for example...so we use that data to stock the right tires in the right places, and just to get an idea of our potential for volume in a county. The information we get is generic, not specific down to the individual.

Now, this company that we work with HAS vehicle registration info specifically on you, your habits there over time, as well as your income, size of your family, insurance provider, and a whole slew of other metrics. Federal Law says that they can not sell me those specifics on an individual, so I don't know in my data specifically that Mark Hall at 101 Main Street, drives a 2008 Prius and makes $500K a year. But what these companies do, since they do have the data, is build "modeling tools" where they can predict (with alarming accuracy) your characteristics. For example, if I tell them I want a list of addresses for people that are likely to be upper middle class income bracket folks who drive 4WD Chevy Silverado 1500's that are nearly 3 years old, they can generate a remarkably accurate list. Based on the average life cycle and miles driven, I know roughly when those folks are likely to replace their OE tires for the first time. Those are valuable targets for one of my tire dealers who want that business. I can then send that list of addresses direct mailings that advertise upper tier brand (these people have money) all-terrain tires (4wd) that are the right sizes for Chevy Silverado 1500's.

I think most of the eyeballs on your habits, your browsing history, your mag subscriptions, your tv usage, is for the sake of selling you stuff...but you think somebody like the Department of Homeland Security couldn't get their hands on it?

I sure don't trust the government, but I don't think there is much we can do to stop it. I can deal with folks trying to sell me stuff, but I hope there isn't a time in America where folks have to go "off the grid" to get away from Government eyes that want to come take control of what you have.