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MoviePass CEO says the app tracks your location before and after movies

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Re: MoviePass CEO says the app tracks your location before and after movies

#5
post #3

Without setting location access to "always", this shouldn't be possible, right? He might only be talking about the customers who have it enabled. So yeah, will wait for the clarification.

On Android, that is not a setting you get.

Re: MoviePass CEO says the app tracks your location before and after movies

#6
post #3

Without setting location access to "always", this shouldn't be possible, right? He might only be talking about the customers who have it enabled. So yeah, will wait for the clarification.

My guess is that they don't collect the data themselves, but buy the location data from some other company. Then they can combine the location data with the movie data they collect themselves. Then they could either use that for advertising, or sell the bundled data along to advertisers for more money.

Re: MoviePass CEO says the app tracks your location before and after movies

#7
post #3

Without setting location access to "always", this shouldn't be possible, right? He might only be talking about the customers who have it enabled. So yeah, will wait for the clarification.

On Android, that is not a setting you get.

An Android, it also asks for permission to read all your photos and you can't use the app if you don't accept. I only run the app on an old iPhone I had lying around for that reason.

Re: MoviePass CEO says the app tracks your location before and after movies

#8
From my understanding, the bet that MoviePass is making is that they will be able to sell user/usage data to studios (or others) to make back the money that they're losing paying full price on the tickets; they've even admitted this in other interviews... just without specifying what data. Even if it's not location data, I would imagine that any/all data they can associate with a user they will.

Re: MoviePass CEO says the app tracks your location before and after movies

#9

Can't you just revoke the location permission?

Yes, all up until you need to check in for the movie. You have to be physically located within a set distance of the theater in order to load up funds on the credit card.

Re: MoviePass CEO says the app tracks your location before and after movies

#10
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On Android, that is not a setting you get.

An Android, it also asks for permission to read all your photos and you can't use the app if you don't accept. I only run the app on an old iPhone I had lying around for that reason.

Is there a use case in the app that makes that somewhat reasonable? If not, it sounds like grounds to be reported and removed from Google Play as malware. I thought that would be 100% against the developer rules. Maybe it is just a guideline to only ask permission for things you need, and to let the user use the app even if permission isn't granted.

Maybe it's just that Google won't feature you or something. But it should be against Play Store rules if it isn't already.

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