BUT WHO'S WATCHING TIVO? CONGRESSMAN CONCERNED ABOUT MAKERS SELLING PRIVATE INFORMATION.

Byline: Lisa Friedman Washington Bureau

A San Fernando Valley congressman wants to make sure TiVo never knows you're a sucker for ``The Bachelor.''

Legislation introduced by Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Sherman Oaks, would prohibit digital video recorder-makers from collecting or selling information about viewing habits that in any way identifies the TV watcher.

Sherman, who is considering buying TiVo himself, said he wants to protect consumers from invasive marketing techniques.

``TiVo is this wonderful system, it's supposed to know what I watch ... but hey, wait a minute, am I going to get a special offer on a 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' T-shirt?

``The idea that some giant computer is going to keep track of what I watch and market ... that just seems like not a good use of the information,'' he said.

Sherman's bill is expected to provoke heated lobbying from privacy groups as well as the high-tech industry when Congress reconvenes in January.

The Electronic Freedom Foundation, a San Francisco group that monitors legislation on electronic surveillance, calls digital video recording concerns ``one of the great privacy issues of our time.''

But the Information Technology Association of America, a powerful trade group representing more than 500 technology firms nationwide, already has put lawmakers on notice that it opposes television privacy proposals.

``We're not quite sure there really is a harm that needs to be addressed,'' said Mark Uncapher, senior vice president and counsel of the ITAA.

Uncapher said most digital video recorder-makers have strict internal privacy policies, and called the scenarios Sherman and others pose ``phantom'' privacy problems.

TiVo executives say they do not collect, share or sell any personal information.

``We're really kind of perplexed by the need for this legislation,'' TiVo spokesman Scott Sutherland said. ``We don't share anyone's information, ever. Period. Not for marketing reasons or any other reason.''

But Lee Tien, a senior staff attorney for the Electronic Freedom Foundation, said the fact that companies could use the information if they wanted to remains troubling.

``My TiVo thinks I'm a 12-year-old,'' Tien said, noting that his digital video recorder gives him viewing suggestions based on the copious recording his young daughters do of ``Lizzie Maguire'' on the Disney Channel.

``It's cute and benign on one level, but at the same time it really should remind us of what can be deduced and inferred from TV watching,'' Tien said.

``These sorts of choices, information about what people watch - it's very, very sensitive,'' he said. ``We certainly seem to have a strong central consensus that it's not other people's business what we read and what we watch.''

Digital video recorders are boxes that act like VCRs. Instead of using a videotape, however, shows are stored on a hard disk drive. The boxes that use TiVo's recording service connect via a phone line to a server to download a schedule of shows and times. The service can even suggest which shows the viewer would like based on previous selections.

But Sutherland said subscriber viewer habits are never transmitted to TiVo headquarters in Alviso, Calif. The set-top box alone keeps track of whether you watch ``Monday Night Football'' or ``Charmed'' - and that information stays in a subscriber's house.

TiVo does collect anonymous information from a random sample of about 10,000 subscribers to gather data about how they use the system. TiVo also sells reports on what Sutherland called ``rating data'' - what people who have TiVo watch at a particular time.

But, Sutherland said, that data is never attached to personal information like the subscriber's name or address. It also isn't connected even to demographic data such as race or age, he said.

Network marketers, he maintained, ``are interested in what hundreds of thousands of people are watching at 9:15 p.m. on a Thursday, but we couldn't sell individual data if we tried.''

Sutherland called public fears that provoke bills like Sherman's ``frustrating.'' But, he said, ``It's part of the price you pay when you're a new technology.''

Added Uncapher, ``We're really at very much the threshold of how interactive television gets used. It makes more sense - when there's not a problem - not to rush into legislation.''

Sherman said he recognizes that abuse of personal information from digital video recorders isn't a current problem.

But, he said, he wants to make sure it never becomes one.

``Why not make the rules of the road clear as people are being asked to buy expensive technology?'' he said.

Plus, Sherman said, he never wants to take the chance that the public might discover which cheesy television shows he watches.

``My postman thinks I'm watching only C-Span,'' he said.

Lisa Friedman, [phone]

lisa.friedman(at)langnews.com