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TV viewing habits can identify individuals

30 March 2005

FINGERPRINTS, iris scans, even the way you walk – there are many ways to identify someone by their “biometrics”. But would you believe it’s possible to ID a person by their TV habits?

Martin Russell at the University of Birmingham, and colleagues from UK firms Ensigma Technologies and Snape Signals Research, compiled TV profiles of 33 volunteers who logged the shows they watched for nine months. Based on these profiles the researchers tried to identify the viewers from a two-week study of their viewing habits. Their IDs were accurate 82 per cent of the time. Live TV is coming to cellphones…

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