Netflix, according to their Q2 letter to shareholders has said its integration into Facebook will be coming first to Canada and South America. Unfortunately due to US privacy laws our cousins to the south will have to wait a while. Specifically the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) is the bottleneck which prevents a company to disclose personally identifiable video rental information to third parties unless the customer opts into such data transfer in writing, this law was first passed in 1988 – do you think it needs an update?
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and CFO David Wells commented in the letter, “it is ambiguous when and how a user can give permission for his or her video viewing data to be shared.” The continued saying that lawmakers have introduced a bill (HR2471) to clarify when and how a user can opt into these kinds of things, adding: “We’re hoping HR2471 passes, enabling us to offer our Facebook integration to our U.S. subscribers who desire it.”