I sometimes hear Netflix lumped in with “Big Tech” or explicitly likened to Facebook, Google and Amazon, which is understandable in terms of newness, internet reliance and reach, but also can be unfair, in the context of data tracking and privacy violations.
While Netflix does track some data (primarily, the device identifier, connection and media watched while on the service), it’s not a data tracking company like Google* and Facebook* are. Those two companies provide ostensibly “free” services, which make money via 2 primary methods: the display of advertisements (from anyone who will pay, including disinformation/lies from both domestic and foreign sources) AND the collection and sale of personal information which was directly provided or can be inferred about their users (based on usage). In the case of Amazon, they also collect significant user data, although they tend to use it internally to increase their product sales, so it’s not commensurate with Facebook or Google, in that regard (although Amazon has other problems, including speed-running their warehouse workers*).
Alternately, Netflix is sometimes compared with television/cable providers, which is fair in terms of being a visual media provider (and sometimes content provider), but also inaccurate in terms of business model and (in)convenience. The big cable providers (who have mostly local monopolies) charge whatever exorbitant prices they want for access (with frequent price increases) and obtain content from the television stations, which include advertisements. So the consumer may feel they are paying twice for the content (once in the huge cable fee which could exceed 200$/mo., and again with frequent interruptions for advertisements). I won’t go into it here, but advertisements, aside from being annoying, can prompt suboptimal choices (via affective conditioning*) or psychological problems like body insecurity (e.g., from beauty product ads). Also, most cable television content is time-bound and user must wait until “air time” to watch a particular show or movie (or, for an additional monthly fee, can record it at air time to watch later with all ads included).
Netflix has a very straightforward business model: end-users pay a subscription and they get full, uninterrupted access to movies and shows, via internet streaming or DVD in the mail. There is no schedule for streaming as content is available on-demand. The plans are easily changeable, visible and universal. Netflix streaming excludes product advertisements (the only “ads” it has are trailers for available shows / movies and these only appear while browsing for shows/movies, not during the watching experience).
I heard a millennial podcaster complain that Netflix content production is heavily influenced by their user data (in the context of reviewing some Netflix-original content, which they said is a mishmash of user-pleasing themes, but not super-coherent). However, I think that podcaster never heard of the Neilson rating system used which is a 20th century practice of surveying “selected” home viewing habits (during selected times, called sweeps), used to sell advertisements and which would often make or break TV shows. This system always seemed deeply unfair to me that a small subset of viewers could result in great shows getting cancelled, especially knowing now that part of the Neilson data is self-reported (which is always prone to inaccuracy). Unlike these television statistical estimates, Netflix actually knows exactly what their viewers are watching via 21st technology, so they have way better data. I’m happy for them to make shows based on what people are actually watching, rather than predicting it based on samples and modified by advertising interests (note: regular television shows not only rely on viewership info for funding, but also on advertising demographics, such as the most desired 18-49 yr old viewers category).
To be fair, I’m not saying Netflix is the perfect company; there are some flaws (e.g., they replaced their 5-star rating system for streaming content with the much-less useful thumbs up/down ratings and their privacy policy is just as convoluted and confusing as most other big tech privacy policies). That said, they have a very fair business model (and reasonable pricing), a good product which is user-friendly and which doesn’t have secret costs built in, like excessive data collection or advertisements.
Some additional info:
Netflix privacy policy: https://help.netflix.com/legal/privacy
*Search terms used to find supporting articles (linked above, but more articles may be found): “facebook data collection,” “google data collection” (use non-google search), “amazon warehouse working conditions” (or alternately, “amazon working conditions”), “advertisements psychological problems.”
