i'm with you on this one. i used to work for a cable company and i can't tell you how many people swear that someone is spying on them. there is no such mechanism in any of these cable boxes that allows for spying. the remote capabilities are WAY exaggerated in the customer's mind. they can turn it off, zap it, or reboot it. that's it. they cannot see you, they cannot hear you, there is no magical death wave flowing through your coax. the output on a dct (cable box) is connected to the tv, silly.
The first is by using your very own television set to listen to you.
Sounds fantastic? Another nutty blog idea? Think again.
Here I am quoting from an in-house memorandum: "The methodology of using a commercial television set connected to a cable network system being used as a transmitter as well as a receiver, allowing other parties to hear conversations conducted in the vicinity of the set utilizes the medium of a digital oscillator installed in television sets.
This use is only for a set itself connected to a cable system. The additional use of a cable box connected to the television set is the only means by which the set can be used to listen to nearby conversations because these boxes are designed to feed back information through the cable system.
This feedback makes it possible for a subscriber to cable to use his telephone to call the cable company for the inclusion of a special program to the subscribers system.
The cable company is automatically able to ascertain the telephone number from the call and using that information, send the desired program to the television set via their network and the box.
The subscriber code of the subscriber matches the data on the subscribers box. This makes the use of the box as an instrument of clandestine surveillance possible.
It is then possible for such information to be fed into other channels, including investigative ones.
The use by private parties of the cable system to obtain clandestine information in this manner would be difficult if not impossible, but the NSA and FBI techniques in other electronic surveillance matters are more than sufficient to ensure electronic eavesdropping.