Netflix Stirs Controversy by Calling out 53 Users Who've Watched a Film Repeatedly

Netflix recently tweeted about the viewing habits of 53 users watching the same Christmas movie consecutively. The tweet sparked some controversy as people wanted to know how much Netflix watched their every move.
Shelby Rogers

Netflix's sappy Christmas flick A Christmas Prince has quickly become one of the Internet's secret obsessions. But Netflix let the secret out of the bag for over 50 viewers in a recent tweet:

For anyone who has actually watched A Christmas Prince, the tweet is laughable as the movie is one to watch once (maybe twice at best) and forget it. Reviewers often joke that the movie could've been written by a chatbot that's only been taught the scripts to Princess Diaries, The Prince and Me and Never Been Kissed

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But for many users, it's not about the content; it's about the principle behind the tweet. 

Netflix makes it public that they track a user's viewing habits. After all, the company famously suggests similar movies and TV shows based off a user's previous choices. 

However, publicly saying to millions of Twitter followers exactly how much a small percentage of users actually watch a particular show or movie did not sit well with everyone. 

One such dissenter is David Johnson, a tech lawyer and lecturer at Stanford Law School. 

And user Mimmi Kingdom wanted to know who had access to even this information and how did they get it:

In addition, Lifetime channel quickly hopped on the bandwagon and was ready to accept anyone who felt judged by the streaming service. Lifetime is notorious for its sappy Christmas flicks largely targeted to women. (The network is so popular during the holiday season that the recently broke into two channels -- Lifetime Movie Network and Lifetime Real Women.)

Netflix responded to the criticisms with a rather unapologetic public statement. 

"The privacy of our members' viewing is important to us," Netflix said in a statement provided to E! News. "This information represents overall viewing trends, not the personal viewing information of specific, identified individuals."

And as for fans of A Christmas Prince? They have similar Christmas films on the way from Netflix (but hopefully, the streaming service will be less judgemental about this one). Decide for yourself if Netflix made the right call and check out the trailer below to get a taste of what everyone is talking about with this movie: 

Via: Netflix, USA Today 

 
 
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