Comments on The Official Netflix Blog: Netflix Privacy

I'd love it if we could someday see the notes left...

2008-05-11T05:09:00.000-07:00

I'd love it if we could someday see the notes left my our faves on a movie page when we visit it as well. This is my favorite feature of Netflix for the friends area too.

Movie Privacy has become an issue for me because m...

2007-11-09T10:07:00.000-08:00

Movie Privacy has become an issue for me because my conservative cousin is now a friend of mine. I have over 4000 movies rated and when I go to the movie privacy page it does not show them all. For movies I rated years ago but now want to mark private it is very difficult. I had to add it to the queue and then go back to the privacy page, wait for it to load mark it private and then go back and remove from my queue. I would like a way to get to all my movie (not just 1,490 of them), the problem is that page takes a good 5 minutes to load as it is now. What I would like to see is an option at the movie at a glance page to be able to choose a mark private check box or link or something. I would also like to see a feature that allows me to mark private from some and not from others. What I tried to do to get around this resulted in a bug. Yes, I found a BUG in your system. I marked a movie private, a few would be protected from it but then sent a note about it some other friends. Well here is the bug: When I left a note about "XYZ" my friends saw a part of the note (the highlight) on the MemberHome page when first logging in but then could not read the rest of the note when they went to the movie at a glance page. I later figured out the the note did show up in their note book but my friends didn't know how to get there and the link they clicked that said "read more" directed them to the movie at a glance page where there was no note. I would like to be able to share a note with certain friends on a movie marked private to others. This should be easy enough to fix so the 'Leave a note' overrides the privacy. Another option would be a "Privacy applies to XYX friend" choice. An option to choose which friends the privacy applies to and which it does not. Thanks for your help and for all the additional features.
Thanks again!
Matt

Fair point, and my apologies. We all sometimes wan...

2007-09-18T23:14:00.000-07:00

Fair point, and my apologies. We all sometimes wander off topic and need someone to get the blog back on topic so that it's of some use to Netflix -- our sponsor, if you will. But it's all in how you say it, and I don't like being TOLD what I can and can't talk about by some self-appointed blog traffic cop either, so please, the floor is all yours.

The Cake Nazi. Yes dear, we all got that, but - ju...

2007-09-18T22:07:00.000-07:00

The Cake Nazi. Yes dear, we all got that, but - just like cakes - jokes eventually get REAL stale.

So, you are the big dictator of thread topics now? Every blog has one, I suppose.

@The Cake Nazi. Yes dear, we all got that, but - j...

2007-09-18T21:42:00.000-07:00

@The Cake Nazi. Yes dear, we all got that, but - just like cakes - jokes eventually get REAL stale.

Two Weeks!

2007-09-17T22:52:00.000-07:00

Two Weeks!

It's over, guys. Let it go, and move on.You are no...

2007-09-17T22:42:00.000-07:00

It's over, guys. Let it go, and move on.

You are no fun. You can't tell when people are playing.

No cake for you!

It's over, guys. Let it go, and move on.

2007-09-17T21:56:00.000-07:00

It's over, guys. Let it go, and move on.

Hello, my dears. My, how you’ve all grown so. Mayb...

2007-09-17T19:06:00.000-07:00

Hello, my dears. My, how you’ve all grown so. Maybe you should cut back on all the cake.

Hi Grandma!You have no way knowing if that was Gra...

2007-09-17T19:02:00.000-07:00

Hi Grandma!

You have no way knowing if that was Grandma or not. This is all anonymous! It's anonymous I tell you! No one will ever in a million billion years be able to figure anything out!

So, in other words, you want Netflix to protect yo...

2007-09-17T18:37:00.000-07:00

So, in other words, you want Netflix to protect you from something you perhaps shouldn't be doing.

Hi Grandma!

FYI: (for interested late comers)In order to see a...

2007-09-17T12:34:00.000-07:00

FYI: (for interested late comers)

In order to see all the posts on privacy so far, you need to also take a look at “This Weekend’s Release.”

Becky

Hey buster, you really don't have any friends or r...

2007-09-17T09:42:00.000-07:00

Hey buster, you really don't have any friends or relatives who's feelings you care about, but who are rather, shall we say, 'behind the times' in their thinking? If any of them were on your Friends list you'd really not rent any movie that might offend them even if that meant only ever renting PG 13 movies -- doesn't have to be soft porn, just any movie that has any sex, drugs or violence it it? How much sense does that make? Netflix' making it possible to rent any movie you want without upsetting people you care about was a truly brilliant and socially conscious addition to the site.

if I rent something that I know would offend her, ...

2007-09-17T07:03:00.000-07:00

if I rent something that I know would offend her, I can mark just that movie private and avoid the lecture on my loose morals and sinful ways.

So, in other words, you want Netflix to protect you from something you perhaps shouldn't be doing.

Bye, bye Becky. Some of us at least will miss your...

2007-09-17T00:16:00.000-07:00

Bye, bye Becky. Some of us at least will miss your quietly fierce yet gracious presence. And Michael, thanks for being so startlingly on the ball re spam, and for your kind words despite the occasional unkind incomings.

And now let's all just cross our fingers that there are no stories on tomorrow's evening news about some bible and shotgun toting grandma that's gone on the rampage after discovering that her grandson's friend's friend of a friend rented 'The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.' ;)

Well, I won’t be going public again until I regain...

2007-09-16T21:42:00.000-07:00

Well, I won’t be going public again until I regain privacy for my friends. It’ s good to know I can still collect faves and give some good reviewers a boost out there when I run across them. Hope the cake is good and tasty.

Meanwhile, I’ll be… *gasp*

Watching movies. ;)

Becky

that grandma can't see my other friend's list, and...

2007-09-16T20:57:00.000-07:00

that grandma can't see my other friend's list, and second, if I rent something that I know would offend her, I can mark just that movie private and avoid the lecture on my loose morals and sinful ways. Then along comes Michael and says hey, we're going to show grandma your friends list so she can look at everything he's watching.

But you can mark all your friends as private. That's the point.

@SpamaphobeYes... i do what i can. Fortunately, or...

2007-09-16T19:58:00.000-07:00

@Spamaphobe

Yes... i do what i can. Fortunately, or unfortunately, on Friday the Netflix Community Blog was selected as a "Blog That Matters" and was featured prominently on the Blogger site -- effectively tripling our already robust readership. Before this, we rarely had any spam here. Now I've been deleting one or three a day. It should subside soon.

On other notes, tomorrow is the release. I hope this is fun for those who want to participate, and i apologize to those who feel they must be private and cannot. remember, even if you're private, you can still save folks as "Faves" and you can navigate around through other less private folks. See if it makes you feel better about things; you can always change from private back to public if you start to feel safe in the community. You can still have Friends just like now, and you can still write reviews, just like now. People who like your reviews won't be able to save you. That's about the worst of it. If you change your mind, it'll be great to have you join us. And it is your prerogative.

This, by the way, has been the most amazing online discussion it has ever been my pleasure to participate in. It's true it might have been easier to explore if it was in a forum-type format, but don't forget, this blog itself is only an experiment, 3 months old. And it has been appropriate given the limitations. I'm enjoying it, find it useful, and i hope y'all do to.

Michael, I know you've got a kinda full plate of c...

2007-09-16T19:34:00.000-07:00

Michael, I know you've got a kinda full plate of cake, icing, pie and cheese right now but is there any way for someone to monitor and delete spam like this? :(

It's unfortunate that we can't play in the communi...

2007-09-16T19:02:00.000-07:00

It's unfortunate that we can't play in the community without showing who our friends are, but I'm glad we don't have to delete our friends to keep them private from each other. Here's hoping that Netflix soon allows us back into the community without forcing us compromise our privacy.

I'm wondering what will happen with those who didn't bother to read the email advising those who want privacy to opt-out. Will the poop hit the fan?

: )

2007-09-16T18:58:00.000-07:00

: )

This whole argument - takes the cake!

2007-09-16T16:59:00.000-07:00

This whole argument - takes the cake!

Random anonymous poster: This is how it will be. ...

2007-09-16T15:29:00.000-07:00

Random anonymous poster: This is how it will be. There will be an option to "not play" for those who wish not to. But apparently that's not good enough for some. Some want to change the rules and THEN play.

Wow, you've got that exactly backwards. Let's try and clarify:

Up till now we've all been able to add people to our friends list and share our queues and ratings with friends. The list of friends has been secret both from the public and the people on our friends list.

Suddenly netflix announces here, that our list of friends will public to the whole world, so we can look at our friends' friends and random strangers' friends.

Some of us say whoa! I don't like that! The response of you and initially from netflix is, if you don't like it, then don't use the friends feature.

So you see, we're not asking to change the rule, we're asking to be able to keep it like it was, but still let other people share their lists of friends if they want to.

And everybody who keeps going, "but it's anonymous, who cares?" you really don't get it. So here's one of those examples you keep complaining that nobody gives:

Let's say I have two people on my friends list.

1. My ultra-religious conservative grandmother.

2. A gay friend who rents nothing but borderline soft-core porn and slasher movies.

I'll point out that my grandmother does know who I am, this is a surprise to many of you, but just try and accept it and bear with me.

Now up until now I had two things going for me, first, that grandma can't see my other friend's list, and second, if I rent something that I know would offend her, I can mark just that movie private and avoid the lecture on my loose morals and sinful ways. Then along comes Michael and says hey, we're going to show grandma your friends list so she can look at everything he's watching. What? Why's that a problem? Well if you don't like it you'll just have to remove them from your friends list.

Fortunately the people that count have seen the light and realized that for this, and numerous other reasons, making our friends list public without our consent might be a problem for some portion of their customers. To those who still don't get it all I can say is thank god you're not in charge.

Hmmm, interesting. Between the 2 threads there are...

2007-09-16T14:54:00.000-07:00

Hmmm, interesting. Between the 2 threads there are now 288 posts on this privacy issue. I'm just amazed at the amount of pressure there turns out to have been in this particular cooker! But it seems to be almost more about demanding respect, and rightly so, from people with differing views than it is about privacy. And that one's going to be pretty hard to resolve in a blog when so many people are still being systematically 'cleansed' for not sharing the 'prevailing wisdom'.

And, anon #87, if you don't understand the differe...

2007-09-16T14:01:00.000-07:00

And, anon #87, if you don't understand the difference between 'opt-in' and 'opt-out' it's rather hard to take your arguments seriously.