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MoviePass CEO: 'we watch how you drive from home to the movies'

chinatopwin chinatopwin 2018-03-06 09:28:49


MoviePass' approach to gathering viewer data might raise eyebrows. According to Media Play 
News, CEO Mitch Lowe told those at a business forum that the movie subscription service's 
app not only tracks your location, but follows you to and from the theater. "We watch how you 
drive from home to the movies," he said, adding that "we watch where you go afterwards." Not 
surprisingly, the company is hoping to understand customer habits and "build a night at the 
movies." If people tend to have dinner before the movie or to have a drink afterwards, for 
example, MoviePass could steer customers to restaurants and bars and take a cut of the 
revenue.

It's no secret that MoviePass would want to collect at least some data. It can use that to help 
movie studios gauge how well their shows are really doing, which is particularly important now 
that MoviePass has a stake in some productions. However, the company doesn't tell you that 
it's actively tracking your location. As TechCrunch explains, the privacy policy only covers a 
"single request" to help you choose a theater and improve the service. If Lowe is right, the app 
is not only collecting location info without consent, but creating a huge privacy risk -- even if 
the tracking data is anonymized, someone could theoretically figure out who you are and 
where you live.

We've asked MoviePass for comment. Provided Lowe hasn't misspoken, though, this would 
help explain why MoviePass is comfortable charging so little for a month's worth of theater 
trips. In theory, the wealth of data would offset whatever losses MoviePass endures. The 
question is whether or not it's collecting that data honestly, and it doesn't look like that's the 
case.