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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

#201

Post by lsaferite »

lumberingjack wrote: post #176
murukesh_s wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"lack of crowds at theaters" > I am also not a crowd lover, i too love it when visiting not so popular theaters where i could stretch myself in between the movie, but sad thing is it won't last long isn't it.. either the theatre closes down or the maintenance goes really low it starts to stink..

That is strange to me. For me there is no other feeling like enjoying a movie with hundreds of strangers. Everyone laughing at the same time, people choking back tears, the "class clown" that hoots and hollers at the appropriate time. When the local theater started serving dinner and beer my friends and I became regulars again. Maybe it's just a nostalgic Oregon Trail Generation thing?

> the "class clown" that hoots and hollers at the appropriate time

This is exactly why I don't like theaters. I go to enjoy the movie, not have a shared social event. The extend of the 'social' aspect is my wife or friend next to me maybe getting an ear whisper, but even that is rare. If I want a shared social movie event I'll go watch The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Edit: I also grew up playing Oregon Trail

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

#202

Post by lsaferite »

EGreg wrote: post #191
013a wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think the environment will stay like this for long. Investors in MoviePass will likely not make their money back. Or maybe they'll break even on a sale of assets to some major theater chain, if everyone involved is smart. Afterward, future investors in companies like this will use MoviePass as another example for the fact the times when you could form a business mostly based on collecting user data is over. T…

I met both the CEO and their investor recently at a conference where they presented. Both are very happy with the growth and the revenues. They are currently breaking even, as their models predicted. Even paying full price for each ticket. Their innovation was getting Mastercard to issue and process their own card, so the movie theaters can't block them without violating Mastercard policy! Now their next plans are to…

Didn't Uber stop tracking after dropoff?

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/08/uber-to-stop-tra...

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

#203

Post by drusepth »

z_open wrote: post #199
dannyw wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People have different valuations. I turn on Location Timeline and allow Google to record my location 24x7, because I find it useful to be able to know where I was any arbitrary day or time.

Is it also useful to be contributing to the apathy that our privacy, as a society, isn't worth protecting?

This is a pretty close-minded view on the pros vs cons of sharing any kind of data in return for benefits you value over that raw data.

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

#204

Post by djrogers »

AndrewCHMcM wrote: post #189
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…

and any app that asks for wifi names or network connection info is also tracking your location can't turn those off though on android

Can’t get that info from iOS...

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

#205

Post by nickster »

Feniks wrote: post #185

I never understood the concept behind this app anyway. You save money with tickets but are supposed to buy more overpriced food in the theatre? Thats not how you save money. Must be an American thing.

You don't have to buy any food.

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

#206

Post by z_open »

drusepth wrote: post #203
z_open wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it also useful to be contributing to the apathy that our privacy, as a society, isn't worth protecting?

This is a pretty close-minded view on the pros vs cons of sharing any kind of data in return for benefits you value over that raw data.

The pros you get are a luxury, while the cons are an infringement on our privacy.

We're at the point where you sharing your data harms everyone else. For example, if there are 1000 people in a population and 999 willing share all data on themselves, the last holdout doesn't need to offer his data. They can already derive it from based on everyone else's.

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

#207

Post by dionidium »

z_open wrote: post #206
drusepth wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a pretty close-minded view on the pros vs cons of sharing any kind of data in return for benefits you value over that raw data.

The pros you get are a luxury, while the cons are an infringement on our privacy. We're at the point where you sharing your data harms everyone else. For example, if there are 1000 people in a population and 999 willing share all data on themselves, the last holdout doesn't need to offer his data. They can already derive it from based on everyone else's.

cons are an infringement on our privacy.

You have to explain why I'm supposed to care that MoviePass knows where I am when I'm near a theater (i.e. why is this a con). You're acting like this is obvious, but it's not. All your work is ahead of you.

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

#208

Post by kc10 »

csmiller wrote: post #118
kc10 wrote: post #58

I was a MoviePass subscriber for about 4 months. But I noticed that international movies and few theaters are blocked, can't reserve tickets ahead of time as per TOS. With all these restrictions I didn't even watch any movies for a couple of months. So I just cancelled and subscribed to Sinemia (I am in no way related to this service).

Never heard of Sinemia. How is it different?

The main advantage is reserving tickets via fandango or any other website that sells the tickets. Personally we didn't watch more than 2 movies a month in theaters, so this works great for us.

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

#209

Post by z_open »

dionidium wrote: post #207
z_open wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The pros you get are a luxury, while the cons are an infringement on our privacy. We're at the point where you sharing your data harms everyone else. For example, if there are 1000 people in a population and 999 willing share all data on themselves, the last holdout doesn't need to offer his data. They can already derive it from based on everyone else's.

cons are an infringement on our privacy. You have to explain why I'm supposed to care that MoviePass knows where I am when I'm near a theater (i.e. why is this a con ). You're acting like this is obvious, but it's not. All your work is ahead of you.

Because they give that information to 3rd parties who have a larger database about you in which to add it. Privacy is a basic human right and everyone wants it. You wouldn't willingly offer all data about yourself and livestream a camera of yourself 24/7 for everyone to see. I also already gave you a reason on how this harms people who don't want to give up any data on themselves.

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

#210

Post by dionidium »

slg wrote: post #22

MoviePass announced their their new, improved, and unrestricted plans in August. We all knew the $10 a month plan was not going to be profitably by itself. In the last week they have started blocking out specific movies, requiring some users to provide photographic proof of their ticket purchases, and bragged about collecting data outside what is described in their TOS. This is after already locking out customers fro…

already locking out customers from using the service at some of AMC's flagship theaters

Just to be clear, they removed a handful of theaters nationwide:

AMC Century City 15, Los Angeles, CA

AMC Mercado 20, Santa Clara, CA

AMC Disney Springs 24, Lake Buena Vista, FL

AMC Loews Boston Common 19, Boston, MA

AMC River East 21, Chicago, IL

AMC Mission Valley 20, San Diego, CA

AMC Tysons Corner 16, McLean, VA

AMC Veterans 24, Tampa, FL

AMC Loews Alderwood Mall 16, Lynwood, WA

For most people, the impact of this is zero, but we'll see what happens next.

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