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Did Netflix cross the data-disclosure line?

Written by Tom Ryan

Source: Netflix/Twitter

A social media firestorm erupted last week after a tweet from Netflix arrived that some felt shamed 53 of its subscribers for their obsessive viewing habits. “To the 53 people who've watched A Christmas Prince every day for the past 18 days: Who hurt you?” Netflix wrote in the tweet. Larger retailers sometimes use their customer data — on an anonymous basis — for marketing, content or research purposes. On December 27 last year, Amazon, for instance, released a number of “Holiday Fun Facts” tied to purchasing data. The findings around spending on Amazon.com during the 2016 holiday season included:
  • Enough 4K TVs were purchased to reach the peak of Mount Everest more than 9 times;
  • Approximately 2.5 million watches were bought, or one every 1.5 seconds;
  • Enough KitchenAid Mixers were purchased to make nearly 7.5 million cookies at once.
Google continues to expand Google Trends, which tracks popular searches in both real time and non-real time. Spotify, the music streaming service, has also used its stats in advertising. Last year, one campaign read, "Dear 3,749 people who streamed 'It's the End of the World as We Know It' the day of the Brexit vote, hang in there." The Netflix tweet was intended as a joke, but some took offense. Among the negative responses:
  • “Very creepy, Netflix. Not cool spying on your PAYING customers and then judging them in public.”
  • “This is an invasion of privacy. They pay you for however they want to use your product and don't deserve to be ridiculed.”
  • “To the @netflix employee who recently watched 1984: It’s not an instruction manual.”
Still, others found the tweet entertaining and jokingly urged Netflix to research their own fanatical viewing habits. One responder was surprised many didn’t realize the depth of information Netflix, as well as Facebook, Google and Amazon, collects on them. In response to the negative reaction, Netflix said in a statement, “The privacy of our members' viewing is important to us. This information represents overall viewing trends, not the personal viewing information of specific, identified individuals.”

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