Netflix Barred from Merging with Facebook because of 1980's law

[CoreyFreeman]

So, I don't know if you guys would have been aware of this, but there was some kind of blowout in the late 80's (early 90s?) about publishing video rentals on a social network. I was young, so the details are fuzzy. Anyhoo the point is, a law was passed that essentially keeps video rental information protected from public display.

This means that Netflix and Facebook can't link up to tell your friends what movies/shows you're currently into.

Anyone who's seen me on twitter knows I think this is a good thing. I'm not watching anything awful (it's mostly Pawn Stars these days) but I find the ridiculous amount of sites automatically linking to facebook annoying these days.

Pandora happily informed me that it had synced to my new account automatically, without my putting in any details AT ALL (I guess it used my email?) and was that cool? No bro, it's not cool. I'm not against people having the choice to share their interests on their profiles. I'm against this automatic merging and "easier to apologize later than ask now" kind of mentality that web apps are taking.

[BizReviewForum]

Good to know Corey. I agree with you on this. I dont share a lot of things online and if some company assumes I want to, that can get very frustrating.

[tommygold]

thats weird, hulu and Facebook are allowing linking, and hulu is like the ad powered version of netflix.

The thing is any of those social networking sites, except disaspora (and that isn't popular so who cares?) are big brother tools, if you don't like that then get yourself a vpn and an anonymous username for all your twitter and Facebook needs.

[CoreyFreeman]

Originally Posted by tommygold

thats weird, hulu and Facebook are allowing linking, and hulu is like the ad powered version of netflix.

Netflix has the DVD rentals, which I think is the issue here. Not publishing what DVDs customers are renting to their social feeds. I know the original instance had to do with like...blockbuster or something. A brick/mortar service with an actual physical product that would register history.