MoviePass CEO Proudly Says App Tracks Your Location Before, After Movies (techcrunch.com)

MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe told an audience at a Hollywood event last Friday that the app tracks moviegoers' locations before and after each show they watch. "We get an enormous amount of information," Lowe said. "We watch how you drive from home to the movies. We watch where you go afterwards." His talk at the Entertainment Finance Forum was entitled "Data is the New Oil: How will MoviePass Monetize It?" TechCrunch reports: It's no secret that MoviePass is planning on making hay out of the data collected through its service. But what I imagined, and what I think most people imagined, was that it would be interesting next-generation data about ticket sales, movie browsing, A/B testing on promotions in the app and so on. I didn't imagine that the app would be tracking your location before you even left your home, and then follow you while you drive back or head out for a drink afterwards. Did you? It sure isn't in the company's privacy policy, which in relation to location tracking discloses only a "single request" when selecting a theater, which will "only be used as a means to develop, improve, and personalize the service." Which part of development requires them to track you before and after you see the movie? A MoviePass representative said in a statement to TechCrunch: "We are exploring utilizing location-based marketing as a way to help enhance the overall experience by creating more opportunities for our subscribers to enjoy all the various elements of a good movie night. We will not be selling the data that we gather. Rather, we will use it to better inform how to market potential customer benefits including discounts on transportation, coupons for nearby restaurants, and other similar opportunities."

Comments

streaming issues

[PopeRatzo]

At my age, my location before and after a movie is the urinal in the men's room. No tracking needed. Those extra large Dr Pepper's go right through you.

Re:streaming issues

[Calydor]

That's why you eat all the popcorn in the first half of the movie so you have a styrofoam container available.

Re:streaming issues

[HornyBastard]

Your age seems to be affecting your memory as well, since you posted that comment twice in 1 minute.
One good thing about that is that you can just watch the same movie over and over

Spoof your location - spoil the data

[Anonymous Coward]

Make it interesting.

* Appear to be traveling 200 MPH after a Fast & Furious movie - only to come to an abrupt stop and cease communicating
* Teleport around the globe every time the transporter is used in a Star Trek movie.
* Spend 10 minutes at every massage parlor in town before AND after a movie.
* Make it appear that you drove several hundred miles and passed up many other theaters showing the same movie to get to the one where you watched it. Go home the same way.
* Make it appear you broke out of prison to see a movie and then returned back to your cell - bonus points if you follow sewer lines in and out of the prison.

Just whatever - use your imagination.

Fixed that for you

[hyades1]

"We are exploring utilizing location-based marketing as a way to help enhance the overall experience..."

"We are exploring exciting new ways to rape the wallets of people stupid enough to give a corporate predator unfettered access to their personal lives.