Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2016 January 7

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January 7

Invasion of privacy: My cable television usage is somehow known through my internet connection

This makes me livid. I was wondering if anyone knows how this works. I switched about two weeks ago to Time Warner – a bundle package for cable TV, Internet and phone. I programmed my DVR to record certain shows. And it just occurred to me that this might be important: I do have an HDMI cord coming from my computer (a mac) from the mini display port to the TV (not the cable box) that I sometimes connect, so that I can play videos I download on the TV. A few moments ago I went to YouTube and, lo and behold, their suggestions for videos for me to watch are very obviously based on my DVR programming and/or what I watch on TV. It's not some minor coincidence I'm blowing out of proportion. I have about 15 programs programmed to record and they all match up to the YouTube suggestions and not other TV-related videos so I know the source but not the mechanism. Any idea how this is being done, and what I might do. It feels like an incredible invasion of privacy to me; a "big brother is watching" moment.--67.244.114.239 (talk) 05:29, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

I'm not sure, but this looks to me like a case of targeted advertising, which is completely routine in this day and age. As for what you might do, there's not much (short of ceasing to use the internet altogether). 2601:646:8E01:9089:F88D:DE34:7772:8E5B (talk) 06:04, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

Your DVR is a computer. It probably phones home to Time Warner to tell it what you're recording. This is how they do things like provide "suggestions" on what to watch. Since Time Warner controls both your TV service and Internet connection, they also assign your IP address, which identifies you on the Internet. They probably sell this information to ad networks. You probably agreed to this in the terms and conditions that you didn't read. --71.119.131.184 (talk) 06:39, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

Your cable company (and all cable companies and internet providers and telephone services) record every bit of data they can about you. Then, they package your information with other customers and sell it. That is how the world works today. If you don't like it, you don't have any good options. Every alternative is far worse than having your information being sold so other people can try to get you to buy junk you don't need. 209.149.114.138 (talk) 13:13, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

I feel that I should have mentioned that this is not unique to cable services. It is also being done by everyone else. Grocery stores package and sell your information. Your health providers package and sell your information. The government packages up all your information and then, well, it's the government. They put it on an poorly secured server and let anyone with a little computer knowledge "hack" into the open system and take it for free. 209.149.114.138 (talk) 15:57, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

Are you sure your Youtube recommendations are related to what you watched on your DVR? If you have a Google account and haven't disabled it, your Youtube recommendations will definitely be based on what you've watched and searched for before, and probably based on your Google searches too as well as other factors (e.g. what's popular in your area, perhaps the sites you visit even without Google being involved given their vast advertising network). And not just on your computer but on any device with the same Google account. E.g. Any smart phone or tablet. If you're not logged in to a Google account these factors will come in to play too although it's more complicated between devices and I think unclear how much they rely on cookies, how much they rely on IPs etc.

BTW this will apply to anyone else using these devices. (E.g. even if you're sure you didn't search or watch anything related on Youtube, how sure you are that no one else using your computer did?)

People often forget that when they like something they tend to give a way a lot of clues in their general internet habits. I'm not saying edit: it's what you suggested is happening is impossible, but I'm not convinced Google is doing this. (Not because they are good, but because while they do get data from others, they are quite successful at collecting their own.)

Nil Einne (talk) 17:31, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

Invasion of your privacy? Lol, there has never been such thing as "private" on the internet. Vespine (talk) 22:11, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

So I assume you'll be posting your credit card numbers and bank account information shortly? --71.119.131.184 (talk) 23:49, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

@71.119.131.184 I try not to post my credit card numbers and bank account information on the internet for precisely this reason. And the fact is, credit card numbers and account information ARE frequently stolen from the internet from people who assume their data is "private". Vespine (talk) 22:20, 10 January 2016 (UTC)

I doubt your PVR viewing is tied to your YouTube account, but Google's algorithms are pretty smart: they may have determined (as described above) that you are likely to be interested in certain things and they happen to be correct. Mingmingla (talk) 22:58, 8 January 2016 (UTC)

This is really easy to prove. Just set a few programs to record on your DVR that you dislike and would never normally watch. Don't search for these programs on the Internet. Then wait and see if they pop up on your YouTube list. If they do, you know what's happened.

Seriously though, targeted advertising has been going on for years and it's used by virtually every free-to-use website - it's how they make their money. You can't escape it, so you might as well get used it it.2.120.39.235 (talk) 15:07, 9 January 2016 (UTC)

Are collections only available on mobile?

I have a group of collections saved on the mobile website, and I can't find any related feature on the desktop site.

Is this beta feature that is only available for use on the mobile site? If so, when will it be available on the desktop site? If not, can someone direct me to where I can locate my collections?

Thank you for your time. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Belac82 (talk • contribs) 16:17, 7 January 2016‎

This question is better asked at the WP:Help desk. Anyway your collections should be here Special:Gather/by/Belac82 (Edit: Special:Gather should take you to your collections whoever you are). This is a beta feature on the mobile site (it's only available if you enable the beta). Whether there's a way to get a link and easily add to your collections on the desktop site, I don't know. Nil Einne (talk) 17:38, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

From Wikipedia:Collections, Mediawikiwiki:Gather and Mediawikiwiki:Extension:Gather/FAQ, it sounds like this feature is only on the mobile site. There were possible plans to extend it to the desktop site, but since development has been on hold since June 2015, it's hard to say if that will ever happen, or whether collections will survive as a feature long term. Edit: While there will probably be some warning, you probably want to save a personal copy of your collections just in case.) BTW, you should be able to access the mobile site on any modern graphical desktop browser. Try [1]. Nil Einne (talk) 17:53, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

USB CD Re-writer

What would be a good, durable and a reliable 'USB CD Re-writer' to buy, that I can keep with me forever? -- Mr. Zoot Cig Bunner (talk) 18:40, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

I don't have a specific recommendation - but do check that the machine you choose can do all of the CDRW/CDRW+/DVDRW/...etc types (there is a horrifyingly long list HERE). The names are confusing and sometimes two very different disk types have very, very similar names. (eg DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW and DVD+RW are quite different - and some disk writers can't write to all of them!) SteveBaker (talk) 21:04, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

Okay thanks! -- Mr. Zoot Cig Bunner (talk) 18:12, 8 January 2016 (UTC)

MATLAB Tool

Hi, I want to increase the number of digits used during the calculations in MATLAB, so I googled it and found this: http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/36534-hpf-a-big-decimal-class However, I can't understand how to use it...

It's written there that I need to write "DefaultNumberOfDigits 30 2" at the command prompt, so downloaded the zip file, extracted it to my working directory, and wrote the above mentioned command at the command prompt. However, this threw an error "Undefined function or variable 'DefaultNumberOfDigits' ".

So, how should I do this? 213.8.204.4 (talk) 19:09, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

Is your working directory in the Matlab's search path? Ruslik_Zero 19:33, 8 January 2016 (UTC)

Yes. 213.8.204.19 (talk) 08:51, 9 January 2016 (UTC)