Posted on 12/31/2012 2:33:20 PM PST by Morgana
FULL TITLE: Netflix customers' ENTIRE movie rental history to be shared with Facebook... including all your guilty pleasures
Netflix users will soon be able to share every film they have watched with their Facebook friends - allowing the social networking giant even more lucrative information on its users' leisure time.
Up until now the Video Privacy Protection Act prohibited Netflix and other streaming services such as Hulu from sharing their customers' history or allowing them to post it themselves.
However, Congress has now passed a bill to the 1988 act that allows users to opt in or out of forthcoming Facebook 'social sharing' features, which let advertisers reach customers who watch movies on the streaming sites but do not 'like' it on those sites.
The Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) previously prevented these actions by stating in law that a person's movie rental history cannot be disclosed without written consent - the law was enacted after supreme court hopeful Robert Bork's rental history was leaked to Washington D.C.'s City Paper in 1987.
While this means that anyone's obsession with violent Honk Kong martial arts movies can not be shared among large internet corporations like Facebook, Netflix will give its customers the opportunity to turn off the sharing feature.
'We are pleased that the Senate moved so quickly after the House,' a Netflix spokesperson told TPM in a statement.
We plan to introduce social features for our US members in 2013, after the president signs it.'
Netflix has been attempting to allow its users to link their Netflix and Facebook accounts since 2011 to allow friends to share online the movies they have watched.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
This ought to be ‘interesting’... hehe
1. Use different email accounts.
2. Opt out of the sharing ability.
3. Don’t “like” everything.
It isn’t a really big deal.
Misleading title: you elect what to want to share.
You have to “opt in”.
Netflix is unneccessary, Facebook is dangerous and stupid.
>> Do you go through life looking to be offended by stuff?
ROFLMAO! That’s some funny, funny stuff coming from you, Mr. Kettleblack.
The important part is the 5th and 6th words of the first sentence of the story: be able. Voluntary. If you don’t want to share don’t.
I don’t FB nor tweet.
If I want my friends or family to know what I am doing, I “narrowcast.” In the old days we called that “sending a direct email” or (heavens forbid) “calling them on the phone.”
I just don’t think the fact I just took a dump at a Starbucks restroom on Lankershim is really worth sharing or of any interest.
This is the most self-absorbed generation in the history of people.
It's totally unpredictable, a former friend liked a pic of mine on Facebook, I didn't think you could do that, and I set my updates to friends only.
Facebook is like a Nazi informant and your the Jew it's after.
Sometimes I think the Internet will kill itself before government gets around to it.
It’s only as intrusive as you want it to be. If you do not want your information shared, then they cannot share it.
The customer still has the power to protect their user history with Netflix.
The article puts the lie to the headline, but since 85% of people only read the headline for their information the majority of people will think that Netflix will be sharing all their information without their knowledge.
Being offended or hating something is somewhat different than objecting to something.
>> I just don’t think the fact I just took a dump at a Starbucks restroom on Lankershim is really worth sharing or of any interest.
You might enjoy watching this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jI6WY1UmmaI&feature=player_embedded
Oh, dear. Now my bad habit of watching Abbott and Costello movies will now be revealed...
If you say so, Mr. Kettleblack.
Yeah, well the Netflix account is in my name but my wife is the one ordering movies to beat the band. And she orders some real crap.
IF they keep their word....Once any information is leaked, what recourse do you have? It’s out “there” and there’s no getting it back.
I'd have to have a Facebook account first.
No harm, no foul.
I don't have accounts on either of these (well, real-name one, anyway), but it is extremely easy to opt-in to these things by mistake, since they will ask you at different times, in different contexts, and hope that you flub up just once.
Also, even if you keep segregated email accounts, it is easy to use the wrong one just once in conjunction with the social account and have it linked against your wishes and maybe even unbeknownst to you. Even if you remove the association later, it is forever retained in the archive records.
It is really, really difficult to keep their tentacles out of your stuff over time.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.