So I guess the Ferengi have made first contact with us poor terrans and have begun influencing our culture...

So for this list to work, you'd have to have a database of people on the list. That defeats the purpose right there. On top of that, you'd have to have some way to mark yourself as a person on that list, while you're browsing. That mark would then have to alert the web servers and whatnot, which would create log entries, which would have to include a unique identifier of that flag. Again, defeating the point. So by putting yourself on the list, you just let Google and everyone else track you better. How about you do what people already do: Incognito/Private Browsing, wipe cookies/cache, and wear tinfoil hats.

For broadcast/OTA, yes. For cable, mostly no. Comcast's just now figuring out to get their heads out of the sand and realize that by forcing everyone to go digital, they can suck more money out via box rentals, help the electric companies, and get less complaints about their series of tubes being clogged by many internets.

Believe it or not, we've had almost the same situation where I work; a little city just outside Sacramento. Comcast changed everything from analog to digital, except for local stations, and then even those went to digital. Eventually, our IT department got Comcast to come out and install a device in each of our buildings that will rebroadcast all of the digital channels as analog via the building's wiring. That, or the IT department has something else going on that I don't know about (despite that I'm the person in Facilities who runs all the cabling for when they installed the black box... Which just /had/ to be in the server room, rather than in the closet where Comcast's cable comes in, which we later found was BS and just a means for the IT admin to try and exercise control over everyone.) So to answer your question: Yes, Comcast does have the device to do this. They're just being retarded about giving it to you, or perhaps they "don't have it" in your market.