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Netflix Has Saved Every Choice You've Ever Made In 'Black Mirror: Bandersnatch' (vice.com)
According to a technology policy researcher, Netflix records all the choices you make in Black Mirror's Bandersnatch episode. "Michael Veale, a technology policy researcher at University College London, wanted to know what data Netflix was collecting from Bandersnatch," reports Motherboard. "People had been speculating a lot on Twitter about Netflix's motivations," Veale told Motherboard in an email. "I thought it would be a fun test to show people how you can use data protection law to ask real questions you have." From the report: The law Veale used is Europe's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The GDPR granted EU citizens a right to access -- anyone can request a wealth of information from a company collecting data. Users can formally request a company such as Netflix tell them the reason its collecting data, the categories they're sorting data into, third parties it's sharing the data with, and other information. Veale used this right of access to ask Netflix questions about Bandersnatch and revealed the answers in a Twitter thread. He found that Netflix is tracking the decisions its users make (which makes sense considering how the film works), and that it is keeping those decisions long after a user has finished the film. It is also stores aggregated forms of the users choice to "help [Netflix] determine how to improve this model of storytelling in the context of a show or movie," the company said in its email response to him. The .csv and PDF files displayed Veale's journey through Bandersnatch, every choice displayed in a long line for him to see.
After sending along a copy of his passport to prove his identity, Veale got the answers he wanted from Netflix via email and -- in a separate email -- a link to a website where he downloaded an encrypted version of his data. He had to use a Netflix-provided key to unlock the data, which came in the form of a .csv file and a PDF. Veale is concerned by what he learned. Netflix didn't tell Veale how long it keeps the data and what the long term deletion plans are. "They claim they're doing the processing as it's 'necessary' for performing the contract between me and Netflix," Veale told Motherboard. "Is storing that data against my account really 'necessary'? They clearly haven't delinked it or anonymized it, as I've got access to it long after I watched the show. If you asked me, they should really be using consent (which you should be able to refuse) or legitimate interests (meaning you can object to it) instead."
After sending along a copy of his passport to prove his identity, Veale got the answers he wanted from Netflix via email and -- in a separate email -- a link to a website where he downloaded an encrypted version of his data. He had to use a Netflix-provided key to unlock the data, which came in the form of a .csv file and a PDF. Veale is concerned by what he learned. Netflix didn't tell Veale how long it keeps the data and what the long term deletion plans are. "They claim they're doing the processing as it's 'necessary' for performing the contract between me and Netflix," Veale told Motherboard. "Is storing that data against my account really 'necessary'? They clearly haven't delinked it or anonymized it, as I've got access to it long after I watched the show. If you asked me, they should really be using consent (which you should be able to refuse) or legitimate interests (meaning you can object to it) instead."
If this catches on, and other entertainment and social media companies start collecting data on every keystroke of input, personal privacy is doomed.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
Clearly, Netflix hasn't been saving all my choices, because if they were, they wouldn't keep recommending that I watch shitty Norwegian police procedurals or bad stand-up comedy specials.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Everything these evil companies do is all about violating you and emptying your pockets. Nothing else. Stop pretending to think for a second that they give a shit about anything else.
That is the winning move of not to play!
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
Duh.
I stopped about 1/3 into it, because of this. Freaked me the fuck out.
I was with a group of people when we watched it and we would hold a quick vote to decide what to pick. After doing it three or four times most people lost interest in voting and I would pick things at random. Then eventually we just let the defaults play.
So when is the Black Mirror episode about a company making a choose your own adventure show processing all the data and .......
This is officially the dumbest supposed news story that I have ever read. Netflix does not do something bold like this without knowing if this is a success or a failure. If adding the choose your own adventure add in makes the majority of viewers return and replay the movie using other choices then adding this element is a huge hit. If it does not them it is not worth the additional expense associated with the gimmick. If you do not get that do us all a favor and do not reproduce.
This bandershatch shit was some of the worst shit ever invented. THere has been "choose your path" since way back on DVDs, and never were any sold because it is a morronic idea
That is clearly a GDPR breach. You did not get apriori reasons, you could not reject storage with the reason "we want your data in case we could need it". What else do you need? Pay up, Netflix!
Can you believe Netflix?
He did nothing more than provide his passport, and in exchange Netflix sent him an encrypted file with the key transferred through a separate mechanism. It's almost like they practiced basic security and complied with the law!
What next? Companies acting in favor of their customers?
They track what you've seen so they know not to recommend the same episode to you again, in Bandersnatch they will take you back to try other choices. So long as they're not sharing this data with others then it's fine.
My God, am I the only actual nerd left here??? The only one who has gone through pretty much every iteration and node of Bandersnatch????
Netflix DOES need to record and store your choices, because they affect nodes in the story sometimes EVERY AFTER YOU RESTART.
That to me was the most fun and brilliant aspect, the effect choices could have even going back to earlier choices (and a meta reference if you know the story).
Seriously, Bandersnatch is awesome, and this guy is an ass. Screw him and everyone else that hates fun.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I care about real violations of privacy. Like apps that record my cell phone's audio, government servers photographing and storing pictures of my license plate with location and time, the inability to fly without invasive tracking, credit card companies selling purchase histories, the NSA literally hacking the internet, Intel's Management Engine.. I can go on and on and on. The choices I make in a CYOA provide nothing compared to the Stasi-like surveillance being perpetrated every day on you and me.
If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
I'm not sure how the production of a passport gives any assurance of the identity of the requestor, especially if they didn't ask for it when the account was set up in the first place. It does sound very much like a charade to deter people from going through the (otherwise free) process of asking for their data.
I felt that bandersnatch kept pushing me into a certain direction even though it was not the direction I wanted to take. I kept ending up in the same places. Were we really in control or was it controlling us to a point?
They kept recommending me a bunch of boring spineless standup comedy, some about that American "white privilege" bullshit concept. The auto-play trailers weren't selling something I cared about watching. Clearly, their algorithms aren't that good. :D
L'Idiot
First, if you don't want to get dirty, don't step in the pig sty. The companies are doing nothing wrong, as it is spelled out in the contract (EULA/ToS) that you explicitly sign before using their services. This is first semester law school. In return for you using their "free" service, they get to use metrics so they can keep the servers going.
Don't like it, start closing those accounts.
Is this like the interactive show from Fahrenheit 451? If so, we are doomed...
How are the paths you take through a tv show even personal information? What harm could possibly come to someone if this information was leaked?
I have deep concerns about unauthorized data collection, but I think it grows to excessive paranoia when your concern is that you selected paths through a show, and it remembers. This is no different than cloud saves for a game, or playing a real life game with anyone and them remembering your choices. I see no problem here. Perhaps I'm just not imaginative enough to see how that data could be used against me.
You're both watching it and living it. ;)
Netflix should just pull out of all EU/GPDR countries and let them suffer.
What a fucking tool. He scanned his passport and sent an image of it via email. BRILLIANT.
No way his identity has bern stolen.. hoho..
Why would they make it easy for us to keep track of them???
Get it straight.. Kendall is a willful idiot and fuck him six ways to sunday with his fascist cocksucking attitudes.
You are in aggregate programming an AI to determine the most viral memes. Future programming will be based on the choices you made for better or worse.