This collection of entries is from April 03, 2003.
So, the service rep on the phone last night gave me the address of the local Comcast office to go swap my modem. I took off at lunch, drove almost all the way back home to swap the modem, when I was very curtly told that they don't do hardware swaps and that the person on the phone gave me wrong information, and that I can only get the modem swapped during a service call. Bastards. I now have a service call 8am on Saturday, and the windows closes at 10am. The had damn well better have a modem with them that works and have me up and running by 10:01am Saturday. Bastards.
Just because I have DirecTV and TiVo and not cable TV, the feds can find out what I'm watching and I don't like it. Damn that Ashcroft...
Under the USA Patriot Act, passed a month after the 9/11 terrorist attack, the feds can force a noncable TV operator to disclose every show you have watched. The government just has to say that the request is related to a terrorism investigation, said Jay Stanley, a technology expert for the American Civil Liberties Union.
Under Section 215 of the Act, you don't even have to be the target of the investigation. Plus, your TV provider is prohibited from informing you that the feds have requested your personal information.
"The language is very broad," Mr. Stanley said. "It allows the FBI to force a company to turn over the records of their customers. They don't even need a reasonable suspicion of criminal behavior."
David Sobel, general counsel for the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a Washington think tank, said the Cable Act of 1984 gives cable operators greater protection against the Patriot Act. Cable companies do not have to release an individual's records unless the feds show that the person is the target of a criminal investigation. Even then, the individual must be notified of the request, which he can then challenge in court.
"The Patriot Act does not override the Cable Act," Mr. Sobel said.
You couldn't blame the satellite TV industry for feeling a little vulnerable these days. DirecTV, for instance, collects a large amount of individual data, such as program package orders, pay-per-view orders and even online purchases via the DirecTV-Wink interactive shopping service. The Justice Department could ask DirecTV to disclose whether you subscribe to Playboy or purchased Viagra if it would help an investigation.