The iView Thin Edge Of The Privacy Wedge?

Michael Cowling Associate Professor – Information & Communication Technology (ICT), CQUniversity Australia penned an important article in The Conversation today. And raises some important questions for us to consider, as the ABC turns on account login and personalisaton services.

https://theconversation.com/mandatory-logins-for-abc-iview-could-open-an-intimate-window-onto-your-life-177540

The ABC says that for iview you can Continue Watching where you left off across all devices logged in to your ABC Account, Create a Watchlist to keep track of your favourite shows, Access your Viewing History, Create a profile for members of your household and Receive personalised recommendations based on what you watch.

For the Listen app it says you can Continue listening where you left off across all devices logged in to your ABC Account, Create a Playlist to listen to programs uninterrupted, Use Favourites to keep track of shows and podcasts, Access your Listening History, Choose Your News with a broader offering of local and topical news content andUse the Call-In and Text-In feature to conveniently engage with a range of ABC radio programs
He wrote: Last week, the ABC announced it will begin to track the viewing habits of all users of its iview streaming platform from March 15. This will be done by making users create an account and log in to watch shows and “benefit from the next stage of personalised services” such as “program recommendations [and] watchlists”.

The change was initially planned for the middle of last year, but was delayed after heavy criticism from privacy experts and others over the proposed arrangements for sharing and recording data. One point of contention was the ABC’s plans to share viewer data with Facebook and Google.

Significant amounts of information could be inferred from our viewing habits: everything from our political leanings to our attention span. What that can then be used for is anyone’s guess.

That’s not to say you shouldn’t create an account, but rather that you need to go in with your eyes wide open. Think about what iview means to you, what data might be shared, and how it might be used. And then decide if you really love Bluey all that much after all.

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Author: Martin North

Martin North is the Principal of Digital Finance Analytics

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