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

techcrunch.com

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

#71

Post by throwaway2048 »

EggsOnToast wrote: post #59
craftyguy wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but if I can do it voluntarily The catch here is that no customers of theirs were given a chance to do so voluntarily. They purposefully misled customers so even though it's nice you don't care, others who do fell into the trap. That's fucked up.

Do you have a link on that or are you talking about the current article? I believe you but I wasn't one of the early adopters of MoviePass so by the time I joined I skimmed the contract, nodded, and thought "Got it, you spy on me and I get cheap stuff."

some vaugely worded crap that would take a lawyer to figure out buried in a 40 page TOS isn't informed consent, sorry.

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

#73

Post by Spooky23 »

asdsa5325 wrote: post #48
lghh wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't need MoviePass to understand me. I want MoviePass to take my money and give me movie tickets.

Which isn't profitable. If you want MoviePass to exist, they need another source of revenue...

MoviePass shouldn’t exist. That’s the problem.

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

#74

Post by Jasper_ »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #62
AlexandrB wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We all knew the $10 a month plan was not going to be profitably by itself. How is this kind of "growth hack" not simply dumping[1]? The only new development here is that dumping is no longer limited to large companies with large war chests thanks to the availability of venture capital. The more interesting question is can healthy, truly profitable technology companies develop in an environment where they have to co…

> How is this kind of "growth hack" not simply dumping[1]? "Dumping" is bad because it harms unsubsidized competitors. (It also pits foreign governments against private companies.) I fail to see who MoviePass hurt except its own investors. > Can healthy, truly profitable technology companies develop in an environment where they have to compete with startups that are ready and willing to undercut them by losing tons o…

> I fail to see who MoviePass hurt except its own investors.

Games on the iOS App Store are generally free (or 99 cents). It is not profitable to recoup your costs by selling the product, because consumers will not pay for an app that costs more money than $1. In order to sustain this environment, the industry has moved to selling data, ads, and other sort of nonsense.

Let's suggest that MoviePass successfully "disrupts" the industry and then gets bought out or dies. What happens if this disruption permanently causes admissions revenue to go down, because consumers expect $10, and as such, movies to be substantially more unprofitable to make?

This sort of long-term "environmental impact" never seems to come up as long as we can pile more ads and tracking on top to make up the difference in unreasonable business models.

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

#75

Post by frgtpsswrdlame »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #62
AlexandrB wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We all knew the $10 a month plan was not going to be profitably by itself. How is this kind of "growth hack" not simply dumping[1]? The only new development here is that dumping is no longer limited to large companies with large war chests thanks to the availability of venture capital. The more interesting question is can healthy, truly profitable technology companies develop in an environment where they have to co…

> How is this kind of "growth hack" not simply dumping[1]? "Dumping" is bad because it harms unsubsidized competitors. (It also pits foreign governments against private companies.) I fail to see who MoviePass hurt except its own investors. > Can healthy, truly profitable technology companies develop in an environment where they have to compete with startups that are ready and willing to undercut them by losing tons o…

>"Dumping" is bad because it harms unsubsidized competitors. (It also pits foreign governments against private companies.) I fail to see who MoviePass hurt except its own investors.

Everyone who might have started a competing company but did the math to figure out they would have to charge more?

>Lyft seems to be doing fine.

Hasn't Lyft been spending billions of dollars without posting a profit just like Uber?

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

#76

Post by Spooky23 »

ben_jones wrote: post #25
ibdf wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know why everyone is always so shocked. People want smart devices/services that understand them. Where do you think the data comes from? From you!

Moreover how can our government condemn commercial data mining while at the same time expanding domestic surveillance? "Don't share your data its harmful! Unless you share it with us!".

If you don’t have a problem with random tech companies tracking your every move, why shouldn’t the government?

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

#77

Post by parfe »

alexandercrohde wrote: post #24
ibdf wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know why everyone is always so shocked. People want smart devices/services that understand them. Where do you think the data comes from? From you!

Nobody is asking moviepass to understand them...

No, they just want subsidized tickets, but then whine that MoviePass gets something out of the deal.

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

#78

Post by l9k »

jnnnthnn wrote: post #45
whoisjuan wrote: post #28

Any app that asks for your location can and will track you. This is so lucrative that Foursquare pivoted the whole company around the concept of location data as a service ( https://enterprise.foursquare.com/ ). Fortunately, you just need to revoke the permission (or don't grant it in the first place) if you want to avoid being tracked. If you're concerned about this, I'd definitely suggest doing a quick check of the…

One thing that is clever about MoviePass, is that in order to use their membership, one must have location services activated at least for a brief instant every time they are going to the movie. Indeed, you need to “check in” in the app when you’re within a 100 yard radius of the theater in order to be able to charge the ticket price to the MoviePass-provided payment card. Odds are, most people won’t want (or remembe…

With the Android app I was able to check in from more than a mile away (multiple times)

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

#80

Post by throwaway2048 »

parfe wrote: post #77
alexandercrohde wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody is asking moviepass to understand them...

No, they just want subsidized tickets, but then whine that MoviePass gets something out of the deal.

yeah not like they are being paid or anything.

The market equilibrium rests where you can extract maximum value, if they can get away with tracking, they will do it, it has absolutely nothing to do with it being a fair deal or not.

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