Making a splash earlier in the week, OpenTV and Predictive Networks announced a partnership
to integrate PN's artificially intelligent profiling technologies with OpenTV's middleware
platform called the Service Platform Suite. The two companies hope to make OpenTV's middleware
smarter when it comes to detecting viewing and remote control clicking patterns in order to more
accurately distribute relevant ads to the exact viewer. For example, while the viewer clicks to
their favorite shows, Web sites, and interactive services to come, Predictive Networks' technology
will tell the difference between who that viewer is and make an educated guess about gender
preferences for programming, advertising, and lifestyle interests. In the combined announcement,
the companies stress this technology will protect the viewers' privacy. Details provided about that
include using random ID numbers rather than associating the named-individual with their data
"discarding clickstream data after analysis", and by requiring users to "opt-in" or "opt-out".
[itvt] was not able at the time of writing to uncover a more articulate explanation of what
all that means. For example, is identifiable data available to companies that develop on
this platform and who chooses to eliminate the data - is it automatic? Privacy increasingly will
be a very important and hot topic as profiling technologies like Predictive Network's "Digital
Silhouettes" (PN has 1 million anonymous behavior profiles called "Silhouettes") become adopted. Only
last month, California State Senator Deborah Bowen got ITV video services personal privacy data
legislation passed through the first stage in the State Capital. Though the original legislation
attempted to cover the network operators and standalone appliances, solely cable and satellite
providers were held to the requirements. It's interesting to note that throughout Predictive
Network's Web site the company emphasizes privacy as an important issue. They went so far as to
create an Independent Privacy Board back in April of 2000 chaired by Harvey A. Silvergate, an ethics
and civil rights activist, and partner at Silvergate & Good, a law firm in Boston. Other notable people
on that board include Whitfield Diffie - a person heavily involved in public key encryption rights,
and Jeffrey Rosen who is on the Board of Advisors for the Privacy Foundation in Denver - the
organization that recently reported on TiVo's supposed privacy violations.