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Netflix Sued For Privacy Invasion
We've discussed the Netflix Prize numerous times as the contest ran, including the news two years ago that the anonymity of the dataset had been broken. Now reader azoblue sends in this excerpt from Wired: "An in-the-closet lesbian mother is suing Netflix for privacy invasion, alleging the movie rental company made it possible for her to be outed when it disclosed insufficiently anonymous information about nearly half-a-million customers as part of its $1 million contest to improve its recommendation system. ... The lead attorney on the new suit, Joseph Malley, recently reached a multimillion-dollar settlement with Facebook over its failed Beacon program, which drew fire in part for sharing users’ Blockbuster rentals with their friends. ... If a data set reveals a person's ZIP code, birthdate and gender, there's an 87 percent chance that the person can be uniquely identified." The suit turns on the question of whether Netflix should have known that their dataset's anonymity could be broken, two years before researchers demonstrated that.
More to the point, what data does Netflix have on you that reveals you to be a closed lesbian? I don't recall seeing a "Are you a closet homosexual?" button when I signed up for my account.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
It's all the Rosie O'Donnell and Margaret Cho comedy specials in her queue.
God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
Netflix has adult material on it? Why wasn't I aware of this awesome featur^W^Wmoral outrage? ;)
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
Because first you get the money, then you get the power, then you get the women. That's one clever lesbian!
I bet if she got more injunctive relief, she wouldn't be a lesbian.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.